Sri Lanka deploys more troops as flood toll climbs to 180

Colombo : Thousands of Sri Lankan troops battled Monday to get relief supplies to over half a million people displaced by the island's worst flooding for 14 years, which has killed at least 180 people.

The military said a lull in torrential monsoon rains allowed it to deploy aircraft, boats and ground troops to evacuate people from flooded areas, deliver essentials and recover bodies.

Just over 550,000 people have had to abandon their homes due to the heavy rains, which have brought flooding and landslides to large parts of the island's southwest.

Sri Lanka is regularly hit by flooding at the start of the annual monsoon. But carpenter J. H. Siripala, who lives in one of the areas worst hit, said he had never seen it this bad.

"I have lived in this area for 27 years and we have gone through floods, but never experienced this much water," the 62-year told AFP in Kalutara district on the southwest coast as a navy boat carried him to safety.

"I thought it was my end," he said as he recalled how the water level suddenly rose on Sunday, covering his head, before he was pulled to safety.

Dhanushka Fernando said his house was under eight feet (2.5 metres) of water on Sunday. "We had floods in 2003 but not this much water," the 28-year-old told AFP.

In May 2003, 250 people were killed and 10,000 homes destroyed after a similarly powerful monsoon.

The official death toll rose to 180 on Monday after soldiers dug out the bodies of a woman and a child from under tonnes of mud following a landslide in Ratnapura, the island's gem capital.

The Disaster Management Centre said another 110 people were missing.

Just over 5,500 houses have suffered structural damage or been completely destroyed, according to official figures.

A Mi-17 transport helicopter crash landed Monday while trying to deliver food and other essentials to a marooned village in the southern area of Baddegama. But air force spokesman Gihan Seneviratne said there were no casualties.