Landslides in southern India triggered by torrential monsoon rains have killed dozens of people with hundreds more feared trapped under mud and debris, according to officials.

The southern coastal state of Kerala has been battered by heavy rains and the collapse of a key bridge at the disaster site in Wayanad district has hampered rescue efforts, according to local media reports.

PM Manoj, press secretary to Kerala’s chief minister, said the landslides had killed at least 49 people so far, while district official DR Meghasree said 45 people were killed and local media reported 66 deaths.

Images published by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) showed rescue crews trudging through mud to search for survivors and carry bodies on stretchers out of the area.

Homes were caked with brown sludge as the force of the landslide’s impact scattered cars, corrugated iron and other debris around the disaster site.

The Indian Army said it had deployed more than 200 soldiers to the area to assist state security forces and fire crews in search and rescue efforts.

“Hundreds of people are suspected to have been trapped,” it said in a statement.

More rainfall and strong winds were forecast in Kerala on Tuesday, the state’s disaster management agency said.

The number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in recent years, and experts say climate change is worsening the problem.

Damming, deforestation and development projects in India have also exacerbated the human toll.

Nearly 500 people were killed across Kerala in 2018 during the worst flooding to hit the state in almost a century.

India’s worst landslide in recent decades was in 1998, when a rockfall triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 220 people and completely buried the tiny village of Malpa in the Himalayas.