Final death toll in flood, landslide stands at 266

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2003, 17:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka's National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) said Saturday that two hundred and sixty six persons have died in recent flood and landslides in six southern districts of the country. However, more than five hundred persons have been reported missing but not accounted in the official list, sources said.

One-hundred-and thirty-six deaths, the highest number in one district, has been reported from Ratnapura district, NDMO said.

More than one hundred and sixty thousand families have been displaced. Sixty one thousand families were rendered homeless in the Matara district alone. Fifty thousand families are homeless in Ratnapura district, NDMO sources said

Twenty six thousand houses have been completely destroyed and about another twenty thousand houses were partly destroyed, NMDO said in a report issued Saturday.

Meanwhile, LTTE leaders Saturday distributed relief materials to the flood and earth slip victims in Matara district, sources said.