Friends Melanie Watters and Janine Reid have been trapped in Pussellawa since Thursday
Two British women stranded by landslides in Sri Lanka’s tea mountains are running out of food and water, the daughter of one of them has said, as officials reported that the death toll of Cyclone Ditwah has reached 465.
Melanie Watters, 54, and her friend Janine Reid, 55, both from London, were being driven through the mountains from Kandy in central Sri Lanka on Thursday when the road in front of them was swamped, sending a bus nearby over a cliff-edge.
The women’s own car was stuck in a ditch and at risk of being washed away, said Watters’ daughter, Katie Beeching, but the friends and their driver had to stay in the vehicle overnight in worsening conditions.
The two women had since found cover at a tea plantation, Beeching said, but she added that they were running out of food, water and fuel, with the roads in and out of the Pussellawa area remaining impassable.
