16 tiwas, skor ilang ing ambruk sampah gedhe ing Sri Lanka

At least 16 people were killed and dozens of houses were damaged and destroyed in a devastating garbage dump landslide in a suburb of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, local military and healthcare officials report.

The massive garbage dump collapse occurred late on Friday, amid traditional local new year’s celebrations. The landfill reportedly caught fire and pile of trash estimated at 300 feet tall, promptly collapsed, damaging over 140 houses, according to local police.

More than 100 houses were buried under the trash, eyewitnesses say. The officials did not comment on the number of people reportedly missing, however.

The bodies of 16 landslide victims have been uncovered so far, army spokesman Roshan Senivirathna said. At least four victims were teenagers, according to a nurse at Colombo’s main hospital.

Search and rescue operations continued into their second day on Saturday, with servicemen using heavy equipment to dig the damaged houses out from under the garbage.

“We heard a massive sound. It was like thunder. Tiles in our house got cracked. Black water started coming in,” one survivor said, adding “we tried to get out but we were trapped inside. We shouted for help and were rescued later.”

A similar incident occurred earlier this year in Ethiopia, when a massive rubbish dump near the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, collapsed, burying neighboring makeshift homes. The devastating landslide killed over 100 shantytown dwellers and waste pickers. The colossal dump had been serving Euphoria’s capital for over half a century before it collapsed under its own weight.