Speaking to local media, police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa said the victims were a 60-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman who were in the first house that caught fire, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the police, the cause of the fire was electrical leakage. Three houses in which estate employees live were destroyed.

Most estate workers in Sri Lanka live in accommodation provided by the plantation companies.

A minister said in January this year that the government had allocated 14 billion rupees (about $46 million) for people without homes in the gardens.