Papua New Guinea: Thousands missing after landslide

The number of people missing following a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea is feared to rise into the thousands, a government agency said.

The acting director of the National Disaster Center said in a letter that he feared more than 2,000 people may have been buried alive in Friday's disaster.

However, it is difficult to establish an exact casualty figure and estimates vary widely, as rescue efforts have been hampered by rubble 10 meters deep in some places and a lack of adequate equipment.

Fewer than a dozen bodies have been found so far, while the United Nations (UN) puts the number missing at 670.

A mountainside collapse early Friday morning wiped out a bustling village in Enga province, with damage stretching nearly a kilometer, observers report.

Around 3,800 people lived in the area before the disaster.

Lusete Laso Mana's letter says the damage is “significant” and has “had a major impact on the country's economic lifeline.”

Prime Minister James Marape expressed his condolences and ordered the country's defense forces and emergency agencies to the area, about 600 km northwest of the capital Port Moresby.

But residents of the affected village of Kaokalam say they are still waiting for authorities to intervene to launch larger relief operations.

One resident, Evit Kambu, said she believed many of her family members were trapped under the rubble and debris.

“I have eighteen family members buried under the debris and dirt I'm on. And I can't count many other family members in the village,” she told the Reuters news agency.

“Thank you to everyone who came to help us. But I can't recover the bodies, so I just stand here helpless.”

A community leader who visited the site told BBC residents they felt they had been left to their own devices. They used shovels and their bare hands to try to dig people out.

“It's been almost three or four days now, but [many] the bodies have not yet been located. It's still covered by the landslide and people are really struggling to dig them out – they're calling on the government for help and support,” Ignas Nembo told the BBC's Newshour programme.

However, a provincial police official told the BBC he saw soldiers arriving at the scene and trying to remove rocks to try to free those trapped.

Acting provincial police commander Martin Kelei called the efforts precarious, as the removal of car-sized boulders and other large barriers risked further damage. landslides.

“Digging is very difficult at the moment because we fear more landslides and more deaths. Local people are only digging where they can see that it is safe. We are trying to identify wherever we can see people buried,” he said. said.

He has visited the site several times since Friday's collapse and said survivors could still be heard calling for help beneath the rubble.

Local media reported that a couple had been pulled alive from under the rocks. They had survived because their house was only on the edge of the landslide.

They were rescued after rescuers heard their cries for help, local broadcaster NBC reported.