Heavy rains in different parts of the State left a trail of destruction with at least five deaths in the last 48 hours, while five other persons have been reported missing.
The State received 93mm of rainfall from August 1 to 6 as against a normal of 51mm, which is 81% excess.
A major landslip in the Brahamagiri Hills surrounding Talacauvery and Bhagamandala in Kodagu flattened swathes of land and five persons are missing.
The missing persons have been identified are Narayanachar, 80, a priest in a temple at Talacauvery, his wife Shantha, 70, their relative Anandatirtha Swami, 70, and two assistant priests, Pawan and Ravikiran. A team of the National Disaster Response Force was pressed into service but it took them quite a while to reach the scene of the disaster, as the roads were inundated by the overflowing Cauvery or blocked by trees.
Sources said there was no sight of the dwellings feared to be flattened in the landslip. The search operation was called off late in the evening and it will resume on Friday.
Elsewhere in the State, two persons died in H.D. Kote taluk of Mysuru district in the last 24 hours. While Shivananjaiah, 70, of Madapura died when a wall collapsed on Thursday, Made Gowda of Anuru village died when a tree fell on him on Wednesday.
At Sakleshpur in Hassan, where the Hemavati is in spate, around 20 houses have been damaged and hundreds of electrical poles have fallen. Siddaiah, 65, a farmer of Sankalapura who went missing on Wednesday, was found dead in Yettinahole near Kyamanahalli on Thursday.
In Udupi, a woman identified as Gulabi, slipped into an overflowing stormwater drain in Nittur. This is the second rain-related death in the district after another person, Sooramma Poojari, was washed away in a stream near Byndoor on August 3.
Meanwhile, the body of Santosh Naik, 30, of Honnavar, who was washed away in the Gangavali at Gullapur village in Ankolka, was recovered on Thursday. He was trapped when he tried to cross an inundated road on his motorcycle, while the pillion rider was rescued.
(With inputs from Mangaluru, Hassan, and Hubballi)
