A MAJOR landslide yesterday struck a village in western India following heavy monsoon rains, killing at least five people and leaving up to 150 feared trapped, officials said.

    Emergency forces rushed to remote Malin village in the Pune district of Maharashtra state, where debris from a hill collapsed onto homes in the morning while residents were sleeping.

    “Five bodies have been recovered and 125 to 150 are still trapped,” Satish Lalit, a spokesman for the Maharashtra chief minister’s office, told reporters.

    Alok Avasthy, regional commandant at the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), also said up to 150 were feared trapped by the landslide, which damaged about 50 houses. He said that it was difficult to confirm casualties as the village has been cut off from communications.

    Nearly 6,000 pilgrims, tourists and others are believed to have died when flash floods and landslides struck northern India last June. The victims were swept away when floods hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, destroying entire villages and towns.

    (SD-Agencies)