Massive landslides triggered by torrential rains buried homes in three villages in the central hills of Sri Lanka, and more than 200 families were missing on Wednesday and feared buried under the mud and debris, the Sri Lankan Red Cross said.

Sixteen bodies had been recovered and about 180 people rescued from the enormous piles of mud unleashed at about 5 pm local time on Tuesday, according to military spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera.

More than 300 soldiers were deployed to search for survivors in the villages of Siripura, Pallebage and Elagipitya in Kegalle district, about 72 kilometers north of the capital of Colombo, Jayaweera said. Heavy fog and continuing rain, along with electricity outages and instability of the ground, were complicating rescue efforts.