21 killed in landslide, road accident in Mizoram

At least 19 people were killed and over 20 others were injured in two separate incidents at Lunglei district along Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram since Monday evening, police said on Tuesday.

While ten people were killed and four others, including minor children, injured during a landslide at Lunglawn locality of Lunglei on Monday evening, 11 people were killed and 21 others were injured after the bus they were travelling fell into a deep gorge on Tuesday.

District administration officials in Lunglei said that landslide occurred at around 6.30 p.m., leading to collapse of a two storied building downhill. The rescuers could manage to rescue four persons including two minor children from the place of occurrence.

"At least ten people were went missing. On Tuesday morning we could recover ten bodies," a district official told IANS on Tuesday. He said that the disaster management units as well as the local organizations have been clearing the debris from the place.

In the second accident, at least 11 people, including six women, were killed and 19 others injured when a passenger bus fell into a deep gorge in Mizoram on Tuesday, police said.

"The private bus was being driven by the assistant as the driver was sleeping in the bus. When the bus was negotiating a curve, it fell into a 500-metre-deep gorge near Pangzawl village in Lunglei killing nine people on the spot and injuring 21 others," a police official said.

Two more passengers succumbed to their injuries on way to hospital.

According to the police, the bus was on its way from Aizawl to the state's southernmost Siaha district.

Lunglei district, which has been witnessing heavy rains in last few days, is also prone to landslides in which many people have died in the past.

--IANS

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