Nagaland landslides claim 14 lives

A dozen others were injured in mudslides triggered by heavy rains.

At least 14 people, including five children, were killed and a dozen injured in mudslides triggered by heavy rains in Nagaland, officials said on Friday.

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A police official said several houses were demolished when small hillocks caved in, trapping sleeping villagers on Thursday in Mokokchung, 120 km east of Nagaland's capital Kohima.

"The casualties took place when mounds of earth trapped sleeping villagers in different places," Mokokchung district magistrate T Imkong said.

The dead included at least five children.

Reports of fresh landslides continued on Friday although no reports of any casualties came in. "Rescue workers were looking for more bodies that could be trapped in the debris," Imkong said.

"Up to a dozen houses, some of them mud-and-thatch huts, were damaged in the landslides."

Heavy rains for the past three days triggered mudslides in mountainous Nagaland, blocking roads and disrupting communications in many places, officials said.

Meanwhile, the authorities in adjoining Assam have asked its officials to be on alert with fears that the rain-swollen Brahmaputra river might spill its banks.

Every year the floods in Assam leave a trail of destruction, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields, drowning livestock, besides causing loss of human life and property in the state of 26 million.

Last year, officials said some 200 people died and countless others were left homeless in Assam during the floods. There have been incessant rains for the past week and the weather office has forecast more to come.

"We are gearing up to meet the challenge, but then the floods are always devastating," an Assam government spokesman said.