Indian Air Force aircraft brings emergency relief supplies to Sri Lanka

Colombo: An Indian Air Force aircraft carrying emergency relief material for those displaced by unprecedented floods arrived in Sri Lanka early on Saturday morning.

The C130 aircraft carrying essential food items and sanitary supplies reached Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport airport at around 1.30 am and was received by the Indian High Commission officials and Sri Lanka Air Force officers.

India on Friday launched ‘Operation Sagar Bandhu' to assist Sri Lanka in its hour of crisis, and the first tranche of relief materials was handed over after the consignments were transported by the Indian Navy's aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and frontline ship INS Udaigiri to the island nation.

The relief came as Sri Lankan authorities warned of an “unprecedented disaster situation” in the Western Province from Friday night due to rising water levels in the Kelani and Attanagalu rivers.

Sri Lanka is facing one of its worst disasters as cyclonic storm Ditwah wreaked havoc, causing floods and landslides that left a trail of destruction and damage to infrastructure.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has confirmed 69 dead till 6 am on Saturday morning while at least 34 people remained unaccounted for. More than 200,000 people from 61,000 families have been affected by the disaster, it said.

However, the Central Province’s Kandy relief officials said the death toll would be much higher as the toll in the Kandy district itself had reached more than 50 by late Friday night and remained unverified officially.

Badulla in the central hills is another district badly hit by landslides with many people missing and over 35 dead.

Cyclone Ditwah caused spills in all major reservoirs and rivers with authorities warning people to evacuate.

The weather bureau said more rains over 200 mm were expected to fall although Ditwah may exit the island by late Saturday.

Nearly 35 per cent of the areas in the island are without power since early Friday with around 7 million of the state power entity Ceylon Electricity Board customers affected.

The restoration work has been hampered by the relentless rains and floods.