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Sri Lanka buries victims of garbage dump tragedy, death toll rises to 24

Xinhua, April 16, 2017 Adjust font size:

Sri Lankan authorities on Sunday held the funeral of 15 victims who had died in the Meetotamulla garbage dump tragedy, just outside Sri Lanka's capital Colombo.

Organizer of the "Movement Against the Meetotamulla Garbage Dump", Nuwan Bopage said that 24 bodies had been recovered from underneath the rubble so far and they believed there were at least 20 more bodies still trapped inside.

Bopage said that hundreds of people had attended the funeral on Sunday to pay their final respects and offer their condolences to grieving family members who had lost their loved ones in the tragedy.

Bopage added that the funeral of the remaining victims would be held on Monday.

"The residents of Meetotamulla are extremely angry at the authorities for their failure to address this issue before. We have been urging the state to look into this matter for the past six years but no one did anything and today many lives have been lost," Bopage said.

Rescue teams continued with their search operations on Sunday to search for more bodies trapped under the rubble.

Military Spokesperson, Brigadier Roshan Seneviratne said that over 1000 troops had been deployed in the rescue and search operations and a center had been set up for anyone to provide details of missing people. Endit