Dozens of deaths feared after ‘massive’ landslide in Papua New Guinea | Weather news

The governor of Enga province said the disaster had caused “loss of life and property” in at least six villages.

A massive landslide has shaken the highlands of Papua New Guinea, local authorities and aid organizations said. Dozens of people are believed to have died.

The disaster occurred on Friday at around 3 a.m. local time (Thursday 5 p.m. GMT) in the village of Kaokalam in the Enga province of Papua New Guinea, about 600 kilometers northwest of the capital of the South Pacific island state, Port Moresby.

According to reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) and local media, about 100 people were killed, but authorities have not confirmed this number.

“Authorities are describing the landslide as ‘massive’ but cannot yet confirm the death toll,” Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington said from Jakarta, Indonesia.

She said the disaster had hit a community of mostly subsistence farmers living in a “remote and quite hilly area where landslides are common.”

“Many houses have been destroyed, as have the gardens that people in these communities rely on for subsistence,” added our correspondent.

Enga province governor Peter Ipatas told AFP a major landslide had caused “loss of life and property.” He said at least six villages were affected.

Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement that he was not yet fully informed about the situation, but assured that the relevant authorities were working intensively to deal with the disaster.

“We are sending disaster management officials, PNG Defence Force and the Department of Works and Highways there to meet with provincial and district officials in Enga and also to start relief work, body recovery and infrastructure reconstruction,” Marape said.

“I will release further information once I am fully informed of the extent of the destruction and loss of life.”

“Houses were buried”

Images from the scene posted on social media showed a massive rock and earth collapse from a densely vegetated hillside, leaving a long and wide scar of car-sized boulders, felled trees and earth stretching to the valley floor.

At the foot of a large landslide, the remains of numerous corrugated iron shelters could be seen.

Dozens of local men and women climbed over the piles of rocks and earth, digging, screaming, listening for survivors or standing there in disbelief, looking at the scene.

Some immediately became rescuers and pulled out bodies buried under rocks and trees.

“The landslide occurred around 3pm yesterday evening and it looks like more than 100 houses were buried. It is not yet known how many people were in those houses,” Vincent Pyati, chairman of the local Community Development Association, told AFP. “The number of victims is unknown.”

Elizabeth Laruma, who heads a women’s business association in Porgera, a town in the same province near the Porgera gold mine, told ABC that houses in Kaokalam village were razed when a mountainside gave way. “As far as I can tell, over 100 people are buried underground,” she said.

The landslide hit a section of highway near the mine, which Barrick Gold operates through Barrick Niugini Ltd, its joint venture with China’s Zijin Mining. A spokesman said it was too early to say whether there had been any damage at the mine, which had enough supplies to operate normally in the short term.

Aid groups including the Papua New Guinea Red Cross and CARE said they had received confirmation of the landslide and were working to find out more.

Because the region lies south of the equator, heavy rains are common. This year, there have been heavy rains and floods. In March, at least 23 people were killed in a landslide in a nearby province.