Thiruvananthapuram | Family and friends wait anxiously for news of Dr Swadheen Panda, a 33-year-old gynaecologist from Bhubaneswar who went missing after a landslide hit the village in Wayanad where they were staying as tourists.

According to Akanksha Mohanty, a friend of Dr Panda, he was accompanied by three others, including a couple, when the landslide struck their resort in a village in the hill district.

While Priyadarshini, one of the survivors, is out of danger, her husband Bishnuprasad's body has been recovered and sent back to Odisha.

Sweekruti Mahapatra, another person who was travelling with Dr Panda, is in critical condition and on a ventilator in a Wayanad hospital.

However, there has been no information about Dr Panda's whereabouts since the landslide.

A senior Kerala government official has assured that an intense search operation is underway to locate Dr Panda, a resident doctor with Odisha Medical Services.

Akanksha, talking to PTI from Chennai where she is working, expressed concern and anxiety about Dr Panda's safety, and said that her husband Suman Saurabh Mohanty is a childhood friend of the missing doctor.