Wayanad (Kerala)(PTI): Frantic phone calls were made by people desperately pleading for help after being trapped under destroyed houses and piles of debris as landslides rocked the high-range hamlets of Kerala's Wayanad district in the early hours of Tuesday.
Television channels aired phone conversations of several people crying and requesting someone to come and rescue them as they were either trapped in their houses or had no way to travel as bridges had been washed away and the roads were flooded.
In one such conversation, a woman, apparently a native of Chooralmala town, was heard crying aloud, saying that someone in her house was trapped under the marsh and debris and could not be pulled out.
"Someone, please come and help us. We have lost our house. We don't know whether Nausheen (apparently a family member) is alive. She is trapped in the marsh. Our house is in the town itself...," the woman could be heard saying.
A man, another native of Chooralmala, said during a phone conversations that the place was still trembling and they didn't know what to do.
"The earth is trembling. There is a huge noise in the place. We have no way to come from Chooralmala," he said.
Another man, in a phone call, alerted that a large number of people were trapped under mud and battling for life in Mundakkai.
"If someone can come here by vehicle from the Meppadi area, we can save the lives of hundreds of people," he said.
An elderly man with injuries told a television channel that his wife was missing and he did not know where she was.
"We were sleeping in the house. Suddenly, a loud noise was heard, and huge boulders and trees were seen suddenly falling down on the roof of our house. Flood water entered the premises, destroying the shutters in front of the house," he said.
He also said someone had rescued him and shifted him to hospital, but his wife was missing.
Over 20 people have been killed in landslides that rocked the hilly Wayanad district on Tuesday, according to the authorities.
Mundakkai, Chooralmala, Attamala, and Noolpuzha villages were among the areas affected and cut off by the landslides.
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Bengaluru, Sep 8: KL Rahul's gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.
Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.
Rahul top-scored for 'A' with a 51.
In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.
The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.
That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.
Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.
Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.
But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.
Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.
Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.
They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.
However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.
The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.
But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.
It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3x4, 4x6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.
But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.
Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).
The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.