Sri Lanka gives up hope for 100 lost in landslide last month
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COLOMBO- Sri Lanka performed final Buddhist rites at the site of last month's massive landslide Thursday and ended the search for some 100 people believed to have been buried under the broken earth.
The rites were performed in memory of those missing and the search effort was halted "on the request of the relatives and people in the area because they felt there is no point in further searching for the missing people as 15 days have already passed," said Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe, who had headed the rescue and search operations.
He said soldiers found 27 bodies, out of which 21 were identified, and found 21 body parts that were not identified. He also said he calculated about 100 people were missing based on details people gave in missing-persons complaints.
