2,000 buried in PNG landslide

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — More than 2,000 people have been buried in a Papua New Guinea landslide that destroyed a remote highland village, the government said on Monday as it called for international help in the rescue effort.

The once-bustling hillside village in Enga Province was almost wiped out when a chunk of Mount Mungalo collapsed in the early hours of Friday morning, smothering scores of homes and the people sleeping inside them.

"The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country," Papua New Guinea's national disaster center said in a letter to the UN, which was obtained by Agence France-Presse.

The main highway to the large Porgera Gold Mine was "completely blocked", it told the UN resident coordinator's office in the capital Port Moresby.

"The situation remains unstable as the landslip continues to shift slowly, posing ongoing danger to both the rescue teams and survivors alike," the disaster center said.

The scale of the catastrophe required "immediate and collaborative actions from all players", it said, including the army, as well as national and regional responders.

It called on the UN to inform Papua New Guinea's development partners "and other international friends" of the crisis, with relief to be coordinated through the disaster center.

China is closely following the massive deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea, mourns for the lives lost and extends sympathies to their families and those hit by the disaster, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday.

China stands ready to help with the relief and reconstruction efforts in light of Papua New Guinea's needs, she said.

Locals and rescue teams have been using shovels and pieces of wood to find bodies under the landslide — a mix of car-sized boulders, uprooted trees and churned-up earth that is thought to be up to 8 meters deep.

Rain, unstable ground and flowing water were making it extremely dangerous for residents and rescue teams to clear debris, according to Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the UN migration agency's mission in PNG.

Streams of water were flowing between the soil and debris, while cracks were appearing in land adjacent to the landslip, Aktoprak said.

"This might trigger a further sliding," the UN official warned, posing a "serious risk" both to rescuers and people living in the area.

Locals said the landslip may have been triggered by heavy rains in recent weeks.

Zhou Jin in Beijing contributed to this story.

Agencies Via Xinhua