Dhaka, Dec. 6 -- Heavy rains lashed Sri Lanka on Friday, hampering a major clean-up operation after severe flooding and landslides last week killed nearly 500 people, officials said.

Authorities reported up to 132 millimeters of rainfall in southern Sri Lanka over 15 hours ending Thursday night.

But while the deluge was intense, they said the large-scale flooding seen since last week had begun to subside.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said 486 people had been confirmed killed and another 341 were still unaccounted for after Cyclone Ditwah left the island on Saturday.

The number of people in state-run refugee camps has dropped to 170,000 from a peak of 225,000 as floodwaters receded in and around the capital Colombo.

Record rai...