Electrician V. K. Muthukrishnan ran to help when a lightning-fast mudslide flattened his neighbour's home in rural Sri Lanka -- only to see his own house swept away minutes later.

A friend whom he directed to the disaster site to aid rescue efforts was also killed in the second cascade of mud and boulders.

"I have nightmares, thinking that I sent my friend to his death," a tearful Muthukrishnan said as he showed AFP reporters the wreckage of his modest home, destroyed on November 27.

"But it could have been more."

AFP was among the first news outlets to enter the stricken central province of Kandy, where the main road had been cut off for over a week due to falling boulders and landslides.

Reporters managed to get in when the road opened briefly on Thursday, before it shut again for u

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