A twelve-year-old child has died while another 11 persons have been hospitalised following the collapse of a section of the garbage dump in Meethotamulla earlier today. 

The wounded have been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital while one of them, a female, is in critical condition, according to hospital sources.  

Emergency workers are still digging through tonnes of garbage, after the massive rubbish dump buried an estimated 40-50 homes as the country celebrated the Sinhala and Tamil New Year on Friday (14).

The tri-forces, Fire Service Department, Police and the Special Task Force (STF) is conducting a joint operation to rescue the people who are buried under the garbage.

President Maithripala Sirisena ordered hundreds of troops and police to join firefighters in the Colombo rescue operation after the 91m-high dump caught fire and collapsed, officials said.

Police said the true scale of the damage remained unclear. “A search for survivors is under way,” the police statement said.

Dozens of homes collapsed after heavy rain caused the garbage mountain to shift, officials said. It became further destabilised after a fire broke out, triggering landslides that buried dwellings.
 
Military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne said 100 soldiers were already digging through mounds of trash at Kolonnawa on the northeastern edge of the capital, with more to join soon.

Heavy earth moving equipment was also being deployed, he added.

Local residents said many people had left the area after the night’s heavy rain.

Roughly 800 tonnes of solid waste is added daily to the open dump, angering residents who live nearby.

-With Inputs From Agencies