AP, Sri Lanka :There was no hope of finding survivors after a mudslide tore through a tea plantation, a Sri Lankan disaster official said on Thursday, amid widely conflicting reports about how many people had been buried alive under the mud.Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera estimated the number of dead in Wednesday’s disaster at the Koslanda tea plantation would be fewer than 100, although villagers said the figure could easily exceed 200.”I have visited the scene and from what I saw I don’t think there will be any survivors,” Amaraweera told The Associated Press on Thursday. “But that number is less than 100.”Initial reports from Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center said some 250 people were missing. But Amaraweera has cut that figure significantly, saying some people believed to have been buried were actually at work or school when the mudslide struck at 7:30 am in the island nation’s central hills.President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the disaster site on Thursday and spoke to residents who have been kept in schools and temples.Heavy monsoon rains caused the mudslide, which wiped out 120 tea workers’ homes in Badulla district, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) east of Colombo, said Lal Sarath Kumara, an official from the Disaster Management Center.A 48-year-old truck driver who gave his name only as Raja said he lost all five members of his household – his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and his 6-month-old grandchild.”I left for work early morning and got a call asking me to rush back because there is an earth slip near my home,” Raja said on Thursday morning, weeping. “I came back and there is no trace of my home, everyone was buried.”About 500 military personnel and civilians resumed the rescue operation on Thursday morning after halting for the night because of rain and slippery conditions. Later scores of desperate civilians led by a politician defied police orders and entered the site and started to dig the earth themselves.
