Officials expressed fears that casualties could mount.

India was the first to respond by sending a navy ship carrying urgently needed inflatable rubber dinghies and medical supplies, officials said.

INS Sujatha was expected to dock at the main port here or in the southern port of Galle by Monday, diplomats said.

Most of the victims were buried alive when mountain slopes came crashing down on their homes in the district of Ratnapura in south-central Sri Lanka, said the regional top civil servant, Malini Premaratne.

"We have found 34 bodies so far and have confirmed the deaths of another 47," Premaratne told AFP as the town remained submerged.

She said 115,000 people had been left homeless in the district famous for its gem mining and blue sapphires.

Police said about 250,000 more people had been made homeless in four more districts and at least 60 people were feared killed in the district of Matara.

"We are not in a position to coordinate well get all the reports of casualties," a top police official in Matar said by telephone. "Judging by the initial reports, we believe about 60 people have been killed."

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe went to the flood-affected areas by helicopter soon after his return from a two-day private visit to India, officials said.

India was one of the countries Sri Lanka approached for a fleet of dinghies and medical supplies as fishing boats and recreational speed boats could not be deployed in the flooded areas, a navy official said.

Local officials in Ratnapura, 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of here, said they faced a shortage of doctors to carry out autopsies on flood victims and reinforcements were called from neighbouring areas.

Premaratne said a search and rescue operation was being carried out jointly by the army, navy, airforce, police and non-government agencies.

"The rains have ceased, but the flood level shows no sign of going down soon," she said.

Authorities called in navy boats and air force helicopters to pluck survivors from roofs and tree tops, local police chief Prassana Nanayakkara said.

Nanayakkara himself had a narrow escape after his boat capsized during a rescue mission Sunday.

He said more than 35 mudslides buried several homes and that many people might have been asleep when their homes were buried.

Politicians said villagers had lost their harvests of rice. Most farmers had been waiting to sell them to warehouses.

Further south, the towns of Deniyaya and Akuressa were under water with thousands of people left homeless. About 150 families were left homeless in the central district of Nuwara Eliya, officials said.

However, the floods had not affected tourist resorts along the southern coast nor those in the central and north-central regions. There were heavy rains in the Colombo last week, but no major flooding.

WAR.WIRE