• Over 15,000 homes destroyed, sending 78,000 to shelters.
• Military rescues 69 bus passengers, including German tourist.
• Govt appeals for international help to support communities.

The death toll from floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose sharply to 334 on Sunday, Sri Lanka’s disaster agency said on Sunday, with many more still missing.

It is the worst natural disaster to hit the island in two decades, and officials said the extent of damage in the worst-affected central region was only just being revealed as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said the death toll had risen to 334, up from 212 earlier on Sunday, with nearly 400 missing and more than 1.3 million people across the island affected by the record rains.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who declared a state of emergency to deal with the disaster, vowed to build back with international support.

“We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” he said in an address to the nation. “Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before.”

The losses and damage are the worst since the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami that killed around 31,000 people and left more than a million homeless.

Rain had subsided across Sri Lanka but low-lying areas of the capital were flooded on Sunday and authorities were bracing for a major relief operation.

A Bell 212 helicopter carrying food for patients stranded at a hospital just north of Colombo crashed into a river on Sunday evening. All five crew members were taken to a nearby hospital.

Another helicopter sent from India rescued 24 people on Sunday, including a pregnant woman and a man in a wheelchair, marooned in the central town of Kotmale, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) northeast of Colombo, officials said.

Pakistan was also sending rescue teams, the Sri Lankan Air Force said, while Japan will also send a team to assess Sri Lanka’s immediate needs and has pledged assistance.

The air force said two infants and a 10-year-old child had also been rescued from a hospital in the northern town of Chilaw, which was submerged on Saturday.

Authorities said flood levels in the capital would take at least a day to recede, while dry weather was also forecast. Cyclone Ditwah moved north towards India on Saturday.

‘Completely flooded’

Selvi, 46, a resident of the Colombo suburb of Wennawatte, left her flooded home on Sunday, carrying four bags of clothes and valuables.

“My house is completely flooded. I don’t know where to go, but I hope there is some safe shelter where I can take my family,” she told AFP.

Receding water levels in the town of Manampitiya, 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Colombo, revealed massive destruction.

“Manampitiya is a flood-prone town, but I have never seen such a volume of water,” said 72-year-old resident S. Sivanandan.

He told the local News Centre portal that businesses and property had been extensively damaged. A car had flipped upside down in front of his shop, he said.

A woman in central Wellawaya said she heard a loud noise and went outside to see boulders rolling down a mountainside before stopping near her home.

“I saw trees falling and moving with the boulders. We are afraid to go back to our homes,” she told reporters after moving to a shelter on safer ground.

Deadliest in years

The National Blood Transfusion Service said supplies were short even though there have been relatively few injuries.

The worst flooding since the turn of the century occurred in June 2003, when 254 people were killed.