Kottayam: Two people were killed in a devastating landslide that struck Payyanithottam in Poonjar Thekkekara panchayat following heavy rain in the early hours of Saturday. The victims were Regina, wife of Manappattu Johny, and their son Josephin. Their bodies were recovered from the debris of their collapsed house after hours of rescue operations.

Rescue personnel first recovered Josephin's body around 7 am. It took another 5 hours, including cutting through collapsed concrete slabs, to retrieve Regina's body. The rescue operation was hampered by the sheer force of the landslide, which completely destroyed the house and buried it under massive amounts of mud and boulders.

The place where the family home once stood has now been reduced to nothing but a mound of earth. The landslide swept the house nearly 10 to 12 metres away, leaving the area devastated that it is difficult to believe a house ever existed there.

Only Regina and Josephin were inside the house when the disaster struck. Johny escaped because he had gone to spend the night at the home of an elderly neighbour. Their other son was in Ernakulam for work. The grief of relatives and local residents who gathered at the site after hearing the tragic news was heart-rending.

Five Fire and Rescue Services units and four excavators were deployed to clear mud and rocks during the search operation. The heavy rain-triggered landslides and mudslides claimed four lives in Kottayam and Idukki districts on Saturday.