At least 16 dead in India landslide

Rescue workers in India battled difficult terrain and bad weather on Thursday as they searched for more than 100 people feared trapped in a landslide that killed at least 16 villagers after incessant rain soaked a mountain slope, officials said.

A wave of extreme heat, wildfires, torrential rain and flooding has wreaked havoc around the world in recent days, raising new fears about the pace of climate change.

The land collapsed in the middle of the night in the remote mountain hamlet of Irshalwadi, in the western state of Maharashtra, about 60 km  from Mumbai, officials said.

It was estimated that at least 225 people lived in the hamlet, the state's deputy chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, told the state assembly. More than 100 of them were feared trapped in the debris.

Rescue workers are having to trek in with their equipment for almost two hours to reach the landslide, some accompanied by sniffer dogs.

They then have to labour in heavy rain and fog, occasionally dodging big boulders tumbling down the slope, in their search for survivors nearly 12 hours after the disaster, a Reuters witness and media reported.

More rain was expected on Thursday but not as heavy, a weather department official said, and a red alert had been issued for the coast of Maharashtra and Gujarat state to the north, which has also been battered by rain this week.