Six members of a family were killed when flash floods originating from a series of landslips wreaked havoc in the district on Thursday.
The family of Parambadan Kunhi, 50, was wiped away in a landslip at Chettiyampara near Erumamunda in Chaliyar panchayat that took place on Wednesday night.
The bodies of Kunhi, daughter-in-law Geeta, 29, her sons Navaneet, 9, and Nived, 3, and cousin Mithun, 16, were recovered in the morning. However, Kunhi’s son Subramanian, 30, could not be located in spite of a day-long search. Nilambur tahsildar N.M. Meharali said the search for Subramanian would continue on Friday morning.
The huge granite rocks that came down the hill along with gushing floodwaters wiped out four houses, including that of Kunhi and Subramanian, off the hills of Chettiyanpara.
The landslip levelled the area in such a way that finding the exact place where Subramanian’s house stood was difficult. The incessant rain made the search operation hard for the rescue workers.
Apart from Mr. Meharali, DySP M.P. Mohanachandran, CI Sunil Pulikkal, Deputy Collector in charge of Disaster Management C. Abdul Rasheed, and deputy forest ranger Ashok Kumar led the rescue operations.
District authorities sounded an alert for those living in the hilly areas as rain continued on Thursday evening.
Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan, M. Ummer, MLA, and P.V. Anvar, MLA, visited the site.