By DPA,
Colombo: The death toll in Sri Lanka’s floods reached at least 23 Thursday, while abnormally cold conditions claimed another five lives, officials said.
The Disaster Management Centre said 23 people had died in the floods that have hit the east and northeast of the country over the last five days, but local government officials claimed the toll was closer to 40.
Around one million people have been displaced by the waters, with 2,680 houses destroyed and 15,274 damaged, mostly in Batticaloa and Ampara districts in the east and Polonnaurwa and Anuaradhapura in the north, the centre said.
Over 200,000 hectares of rice fields have been swept away.
More than 30,000 security personnel have been deployed for flood relief work, officials said.
A cold snap in the east of the country claimed a further five lives, said R. Rakakulanayagi, a government official in the town of Vakarai in Batticaloa, quoting hospital sources.
Temperatures in most parts of the country dropped below 20 degrees Celsius, with the head of the meterological department, D. Samarasinghe, warning that cold conditions may prevail until February.
The temperature in Colombo temperature dropped late Wednesday to 18.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest recorded in the capital for two years. In the central district of Nuwar Eliya, the mercury fell to 7.9 degrees.