Papua New Guinea: Many deaths feared in massive landslide

A massive landslide in remote villages in Papua New Guinea is believed to have claimed hundreds of lives, local authorities and aid organizations said.

The landslide buried more than 100 houses after it occurred around 3:00 a.m. local time on Friday (17:00 GMT on Thursday) in the Enga highlands in the north of the island nation in the southwestern Pacific.

It was not immediately clear how many people were trapped in the rubble.

Enga Governor Peter Ipatas told AFP news agency that it was an “unprecedented natural disaster.”

Andrew Ruing, a community leader, told Reuters that people were sleeping when the landslide started. “More than 300 lives were covered by rubble and stones,” he said.

“Food, gardens, people and property worth millions were lost, all these things covered them,” he added.

The company’s managing director, Elizabeth Iarume, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that “the whole village had gone under.”

Villager Ninga Role also said he believed hundreds had died. The extent of the landslide also makes rescuing survivors difficult, he said.

“The area affected by the landslide is large and there are rocks and trees everywhere,” Role told Reuters by phone. “It is very difficult to get them out.”

The humanitarian organization Care Australia said in a statement: “Although the area is not densely populated, we fear the death toll may be disproportionately high.”

Clearing the road will take a long time and “this will hamper assessment and relief efforts,” it said.

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape said disaster officials had been dispatched to the scene to “begin relief work, recover bodies and rebuild infrastructure.”

Videos show villagers climbing over rocks to reach those buried.

A video posted by Facebook user Kindupan Kambii from Kaokalam village in Enga shows people crying and screaming.

The Papua New Guinea Red Cross said an emergency response team comprising officials from the provincial governor’s office, police, armed forces and local non-governmental organizations had been dispatched to the scene.

Enga is more than 600 kilometres (372 miles) by road from the country’s capital, Port Moresby.