Sri Lankan authorities deployed the military for relief and rescue operations Friday as the death toll from floods and landslides rose to 56, with another 21 people listed as missing.

Helicopters, navy boats and armoured personnel carriers are being used to evacuate marooned villagers in several parts of the country, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said, as the rain continued.

The island's entire 65,000-square-kilometre (25,000-square-mile) area is experiencing rainfall, with some regions seeing 360 millimetres in the past 24 hours, the DMC said.

Of the 56 people confirmed dead, 26 were buried alive in mudslides in the tea-growing Badulla district in the central region of the island, it added.

Twenty-one people were listed as missing, while another 14 were hospitalised.

The DMC s

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