June 15, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1429

GUWAHATI, June 14: At least 14 people were killed and 30 injured on Saturday in mudslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in India’s northeast, officials said. Rescue work was being hampered by heavy rain, local official Bidul Payeng said, adding the death toll could mount further with at least 10 of the injured in critical condition.

“So far we’ve recovered 14 dead bodies. Most victims died after hillocks caved in on their houses,” Payeng said. The casualties occurred in and around Arunachal Pradesh state capital Itanagar, which was cut off from the rest of the country.

Payeng said there were reports of at least two vehicles falling down a gorge on the city’s outskirts. “We are unable to carry out rescue operations due to heavy rains. We don’t know how many people were in the vehicles,” he said.

In adjoining Assam state, monsoon-triggered flash floods inundated 120 villages, displacing around 30,000 people.

“There were breaches in three major embankments (of the state’s main Brahmaputra river) following heavy rains,” district police chief S A Karim said. The 2,906-kilometre-long Brahmaputra is one of Asia’s largest rivers, crossing through China’s Tibet region and India’s northeast before flowing through Bangladesh and emptying into the Bay of Bengal.—AFP