More than 130 people who went missing in central Sri Lanka, following landslides and flooding triggered by days of torrential rain, are feared dead, reported BBC News.

Extreme weather in several parts of the country over the past few days has killed at least 43 people and left more than 3.5 lakh others displaced.

Troops had earlier rescued 150 people from the worst-hit district of Kegalle, 72-km from the capital Colombo, where three villages were buried in Aranayake district. Around 1,550 people are being sheltered at seven different sites. But rescue teams said on Thursday that there may be no survivors after no more people were found overnight, even as persistent bad weather is affecting the army's rescue efforts.

Fields and streets are submerged throughout Sri Lanka after three days of incessant rains that came just a couple weeks before the monsoon. The northern town of Kilinochchi received a quarter of the area's typical annual rainfall in just 24 hours.