PALAKKAD: A landslide that destroyed three houses at Cherumkadu in Aluvassery near Nemmara in the district early on Thursday morning has left nine persons dead. Fire and rescue services and police are searching for other people possibly trapped in the area, said officials.Seven of the bodies recovered from the debris have been identified. They are of Gangadharan (55) of Cherumkadu, his wife Subhadra (50), their daughters Athira (24) and Arya (17) and Athira’s 28-day-old daughter, Abhijith (25), son of late Unnikrishnan of Cherikad and Anitha (28), said district medical officer Dr K P Reetha.Law and culture minister A K Balan said that 200 central reserve police and Rapid Action Force personnel have been deployed in the district for rescue operations.The Bharathapuzha and Bhavani rivers flowing though the district are in spate. With the Pattambi and Mayannur bridges across Bharathapuzha getting submerged, traffic between Palakkad and Thrissur has come to a standstill.The opening of shutters of the Malampuzha reservoir by 1.50 meters has flooded Palakkad town again, affecting large number of people. The water level in the reservoir has almost touched the full reservoir level (FRL) of 115 meters.The shutters of all the 12 reservoirs in the district, including Parambikulam and Aliyar, have currently been raised, thus releasing huge quantity of water into the Chitturpuzha and Bharathapuzha rivers.

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