An alms giving took place today to accrue merits on those who died in the disaster and 60 Buddhist monks chanted Seth Pirith at Hathgampola Maha Vidyalaya to invoke blessings on the people.

The Security forces formally ended searching for the missing people on requests of the kin 14 days after the massive landslide that buried three villages in Aranayake in Kegalle District on 17th May.

Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe, who led the search and rescue operations said the operations were called off Thursday on the request of the relatives and people in the area because they felt there is no point in further searching for the missing people."

"We called off the search operations following requests made by people and relatives as they felt there is no point in further searching for the missing people," he said.

More than 46 bodies have been recovered from the mud but another 103 are still listed as missing and presumed buried in the mud by the Disaster Management Centre.

Meanwhile the Building Research Organization has issued landslide warnings for Kegalle, Ratnapura, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Kalutara Districts due to the torrential rains experienced recently.