Tathagata BhattacharjeeGuwahati: Four persons, including an 11-year-old girl, were killed in two separate landslides in Guwahati on Tuesday after the city received 30.5 mm of rain, State Disaster Response Force personnel said.The landslides occurred in Mathgharia near Noonmati and Satgaon near Narengi, said Moononjan Ramchiary, response team commander of the fire and emergency services.In Satgaon, a large boulder fell on a house in the area while its occupants were sleeping, killing 65-year-old P Sumitra, wife of P Damru (75). Their son, P Romanna (45), and P Lakshmi (40) were injured but escaped from the collapsed structure. Their neighbour, Dabolota Das, who rushed to help the family, suffered a hand injury and a fracture, Ramchiary said.The Dispur fire and emergency services station received the distress call around 10 am and reached the spot soon afterwards. By then, local residents had completed the rescue operation, officials said.In Mathgharia’s Lakshmi Mandir Path, a house was buried under soil after a landslide from a hillside, killing three members of a family. The deceased were identified as Nagen Rajbongshi (50), his wife Sunu Rajbongshi (38), and their daughter Mina Rajbongshi (11). Their 19-year-old son, Biplab Rajbongshi, escaped.“At around 5.30 pm, I woke up. It had been raining, but not very heavy. So, I went back to sleep for a little while. I was sleeping on one bed, while my mother, father, and sister were on another bed. The debris fell mostly on their side, while only a portion at my end,” Biplab said while speaking to the media.The district administration said both areas are located in earthquake-prone and vulnerable zones, making houses built there particularly susceptible to landslides. Officials said intense monsoon rainfall loosens the soil and reduces slope stability, raising the risk to homes built on or near hillsides.
