AA / Ankara / Amir Latif Arain
The death toll from catastrophic floods in Sri Lanka has risen to 12, with eight more people losing their lives following torrential rains accompanying tropical storm Fengal, authorities announced Thursday.
Of the dead, eight are from Ampara district in the Eastern province, authorities said, adding that 17 people were injured.
Rescue workers recovered the bodies of four drowned children on Thursday, as hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by massive flooding in at least 10 districts of the island nation.
According to Sri Lankan government figures, some 335,000 people have been forced from their homes in the Northern and Eastern provinces due to flooding.
The local English-language daily Tamil Guardian reports that the floods have also blocked several important roads in the two provinces.
The government has asked the army to participate in relief operations.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed local authorities to provide relief services to residents in disaster-affected areas.
The Sri Lanka Disaster Management Center said some 335,000 people were seeking temporary shelter in public buildings after seeing their homes engulfed by water.
The Center also said rescue teams were still searching for two missing children and two men, who were also swept away by the floodwaters.
Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common in South Asia, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
*Translated from English by Mourad Belhaj
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