[InKunming--Sister Cities]  At least 25 people were killed and over 100 remain trapped after a landslide crashed on a village near Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra Wednesday, a senior police official said Thursday.

Heavy rain is reported to be the main reason of the landslide. The flood-stricken Ambegaon village is said to be a remote one with poor connectivity.

A 300-strong team comprising National Disaster Response Force, Maharashtra Disaster Response Force, police, villagers and political activists braved inclement weather, searching for people trapped under stones, boulders and sticky mud.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish over the tragedy while Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to visit the site Thursday.

Heavy rain, which lashed the picturesque region over the past four days, continued to hamper relief operations whole day and prevented rescuers from approaching the site, as flowing water kept shifting the mud.

An army team was sent from Pune, said Nationalist Congress Party legislator and assembly Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil, in whose constituency the accident occurred.

At least 50 ambulances have been rushed from nearby towns while an entire ward has been kept ready at the Sassoon Hospital, Pune, about 120 km from the site.

District officials said people in about half-a-dozen other villages in the hilly neighborhood are being evacuated as a precautionary measure.