Hundreds feared dead in PNG landslide

MELBOURNE, Australia — The International Organization for Migration on Sunday increased its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670, as the search continued for hundreds of villagers feared dead under the rubble.

Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the United Nations migration agency's mission in the Pacific island country, said the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials that more than 150 homes had been buried by Friday's landslide. The previous estimate had been 60 homes.

"They are estimating that more than 670 people (are) under the soil at the moment," Aktoprak told The Associated Press.

A once-bustling hillside village in northern Enga Province was almost completely obliterated when the landslide struck a few hours before dawn on Friday, burying scores of homes and those sleeping inside.

Aktoprak said tribal fighting had broken out along the only remaining route into the disaster zone.

While the violence was "not related to the landslide", Papua New Guinea's military was providing a "security escort" to ensure the safe passage of aid convoys, Aktoprak said.

Government authorities were establishing evacuation centers on safer ground on either side of the massive swathe of debris that covers an area the size of three to four football fields and has cut the main highway through the province.

"Working across the debris is very dangerous, and the land is still sliding," Aktoprak said.

The village was home to almost 4,000 people, serving as a bustling trading post for alluvial miners who panned for the gold in the highlands region.

Five bodies had been pulled from the debris by Saturday night, Aktoprak said, adding that more than 100 houses were estimated to have been destroyed.

"Working across the debris is very dangerous and the land is still sliding," he said from the capital Port Moresby, relaying the concerns of a UN emergency response team working in Enga.

At some points, the landslide — a mix of car-sized boulders, uprooted trees and churned-up earth — was thought to be 8 meters deep.

"Hopes to take the people out alive from the rubble have diminished now," Aktoprak told AP. "People are coming to terms with this so there is a serious level of grieving and mourning."

Aid agencies said the catastrophe had effectively wiped out the village's livestock, food gardens and sources of clean water.

Agencies Via Xinhua