By Lewis Jackson and Renju Jose
Hundreds are feared dead after a massive landslide flattened dozens of homes and buried families alive in a remote village in northern Papua New Guinea (PNG) early on Friday, a resident said.
More than 50 homes, many with people still asleep inside, were buried when the landslide hit Kaokalam village about 3am, villager Ninga Role told Reuters by phone. The death toll was nearly 300, among them his brother and cousin, he said.
The ABC and PNG media reported that more than 100 people had been killed.
One man who turned back to try to save his two children was buried along with his extended family, Role said.
Social media footage posted by Role showed people clambering over rocks, uprooted trees and mounds of dirt searching for survivors. Women can be heard weeping in the background.
“It’s very impossible, the area covered by the landslide is large and there are rocks and trees everywhere,” Role said.
“It’s very difficult to get them out.”
Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The village is in Enga province, about 600 kilometres north of the capital Port Moresby.
Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement he had yet to be fully briefed but that authorities were responding to the disaster.
“We are sending in disaster officials, PNG Defence Force, and the Department of Works and Highways to meet provincial and district officials in Enga and also start relief work, recovery of bodies, and reconstruction of infrastructure,” Marape said.
“I will release further information as I am fully briefed on the scale of destruction and loss of lives.”
PNG police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The landslide hit a section of highway near the Porgera gold mine, operated by Barrick Gold through Barrick Niugini, its joint venture with China’s Zijin Mining.
A spokesperson said it was too soon to know whether there had been any damage to the mine, which had enough supplies to operate normally in the short term.
Photos and videos posted on social media indicate the scale of destruction. Residents are seen scaling huge rocks, scattered among tree trunks and debris left by the landslide to assess the damage.
Some images showed locals helping people trapped under buried homes or under the rubble and carrying them out.
Elizabeth Laruma, who runs a women’s business association in Porgera, a town in the same province near the Porgera Gold Mine, said village houses were flattened when the side of a mountain gave way.
“It has occurred when people were still asleep in the early hours, and the entire village has gone down,” Laruma told ABC. “From what I can presume, it’s about 100-plus people who are buried beneath the ground.”
The landslide blocked the road between Porgera and the village, she said, raising concerns about the town’s own supply of fuel and goods.
PNG is a diverse, developing nation of mostly subsistence farmers and about 800 languages. There are few roads outside the larger cites.
With 10 million people, it also the most populous South Pacific nation after Australia.
Reuters, AP, Bloomberg
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