Sri Lanka grapples with trauma, loss after deadly cyclone that killed hundreds


  • World
  • Tuesday, 02 Dec 2025

People stand next to debris near a damaged house after landslides caused by heavy rainfall following Cyclone Ditwah in Kandy, Sri Lanka, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Thilina Kaluthotage

ALAWATHUGODA, Sri Lanka, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Nawaz Nashra recalls grabbing her three-year-old daughter, wrapping her in a bedsheet and running out of their home in central Sri Lanka as a landslide struck, triggered by a deadly cyclone that killed 410 people in the worst floods in a decade.

Nashra and her pregnant sister, who lived with her, spent the next 20 minutes scrambling down the hillside from Alawathugoda village on Friday night, sometimes knee-deep in mud, until they reached a mosque at a lower altitude, where they spent the night.

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