7 bodies recovered

Road traffic between Palakkad and Thrissur comes to a complete halt

Rescue operations on at a landslip site at Cherumkad in Palakkad district on Thursday.

Bodies of seven victims, including that of a three-month-old infant, were recovered from the site of a massive landslip that occurred early on Thursday at Cherumkad in the catchment area of the Pothundy dam in Palakkad district. Meanwhile, rescue workers have intensified search for those who might have been trapped inside the debris of the three affected houses.

According to District Medical Officer K.P. Reetha, the deceased have been identified as A. Gangadharan, 55, his wife Subhadra 50, daughters Athira, 24, and Arya, 17, Athira’s three-month-old child, and neighbours Abhijith, 25, and Anitha, 28. Five others have been rescued with serious

Tribesman dead

Meanwhile, rescue workers recovered the body of tribesman Thambi, 42, of Karadiyod near Mannarkkad, who was swept away early in the morning in flash floods in the Kunthi river, a tributary of Bharathapuzha, following major landslips in the buffer zone of Silent Valley National Park.

Search is on for his wife Maadhi and granddaughter Vaani.

At Anappara near Thiruvizhamkunnu, four members of a familywere swept away in surging waters of Karimpuzha.

For the first time since its construction, the Kunthipuzha bridge on the Palakkad-Kozhikode National Highway was submerged in surging waters.