COLOMBO: Heavy rains lashed Sri Lanka on Friday, hampering a major clean-up operation after severe flooding and landslides last week killed nearly 500 people, officials said. Authorities reported up to 132 millimeters of rainfall in southern Sri Lanka over a 15-hour period ending Thursday night. But while the deluge was intense, they said the large-scale flooding seen since last week had begun to subside. The Disaster Management Center (DMC) said 486 people had been confirmed killed and another 341 were still unaccounted for after Cyclone Ditwah left the island on Saturday.

Accompanied by torrential rainfall, Cyclone Ditwah triggered landslides and floods that killed at least 410 people, with 336 still missing. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has…

COLOMBO: Heavy rains lashed Sri Lanka on Friday, hampering a major clean-up operation after severe flooding and landslides last week killed nearly 500 people, officials said.…

President Dissanayake has called rescue and recovery efforts the most difficult in the nation's history.