Sri Lanka flood, landslide toll rises to 334, over 400 missing

The death toll from floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose sharply to 334 on Sunday, Sri Lanka's disaster agency said on Sunday, with many more still missing.

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It is the worst natural disaster to hit the island in two decades, and officials said the extent of damage in the worst-affected central region was only just being revealed as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said the death toll had risen to 334, up from 212 earlier on Sunday, with over 400 missing and more than 1.3 million people across the island affected by the record rains.

The losses and damage are the worst since the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami that killed around 31,000 people and left more than a million homeless.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency on Saturday to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone and appealed for international aid. The worst flooding since the turn of the century occurred in June 2003, when 254 people were killed.

Rain had subsided across Sri Lanka but low-lying areas of the capital were flooded on Sunday and authorities were bracing for a major relief operation.