A terrifying CCTV video from Kerala, India, shows just how quickly disaster can strike when the ground gives way.
On the morning of July 7, 2026, heavy monsoon rains pounded the hilly terrain near Meenakshi Bridge in Wayanad district. People stood under umbrellas along a wet roadside, some gathered near a parked green jeep and a scooter. Then the hillside collapsed. A wall of mud and debris roared down, shoving a massive fuel tanker truck across the road like a toy.
The footage, recorded by a nearby camera, captures the panic in real time. Bystanders scatter as the brown torrent slams into the area. One man grabs his wife’s hand and yanks her to safety just before the tanker slams into the jeep, crushing the exact spot where she had been standing seconds earlier. Both walked away with only scratches. “My husband pulled me away. It feels like I’ve been given a new lease of life,” the woman later said.
Others were not as fortunate. The landslide struck an under-construction twin-tunnel project site meant to connect Wayanad and neighboring districts. Rescue teams later recovered eight bodies, all migrant workers from other Indian states who had been on or near the site. Several more people were injured, some critically.
The video has circulated widely, sometimes with the wrong location attached. The clip is from Kerala, not Nepal, despite some social media posts claiming otherwise. What it shows is unmistakable: a sudden, violent surge of earth that left almost no time to react.
Authorities pointed to extreme rainfall, more than 200 millimeters in 24 hours—combined with loose soil from construction activity as the likely trigger. Search operations continued for days in the mud and the nearby river. A relief camp housed dozens of displaced families.
The images are a stark reminder of how quickly conditions can turn in landslide-prone hill regions during monsoon season. One moment people are waiting out the rain. The next, a hillside is moving and a heavy vehicle is being thrown across the road. Those who survived did so by seconds.
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