Sri Lanka calls off recovery operations at landslide hit village

The Sri Lankan government has called off search operations at the Koslanda Meeriyabedda landslide site in the island-nation's Badulla District after twelve days.

So far, 14 bodies from the site, reports the Colombo Page web site.

Security Commander of the Central Province Major General Mano Perera, who is in charge of the recovery operations, said the body has been identified as that of a nine-year-old child.

Another 20 people are still unaccounted for and are presumed dead according to the Disaster Management Center figures.

The government, on the request of the villagers, has decided to halt the recovery operations and resettle the surviving victims of the landslide disaster.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Disaster Management Mahindananda Amaraweera, who visited the landslide hit area Saturday and met the survivors of the disaster and rescue workers, said the relatives of the deceased people have requested the rescue operations to be suspended.

The Government Information Department announced that a commemoration plaque with the names of the dead and missing will be erected at the site.