Mud slides tumbled down a rain-soaked mountain in the southern Philippines, burying dozens of shanties in a gold-mining village and killing at least 26 people, a provincial governor said yesterday.
A 50-member police and military rescue team headed to the remote village of Napnapan to help search for at least six people missing a day after the landslides hit, Compostela Valley Governor Arthur Uy said.
ISOLATED VILLAGE
The village, which normally has no police presence, is about 40km from the nearest main town and the rescuers brought a backhoe and other heavy equipment to clear the only road leading to it, police Inspector Winifredo Regidor said.
One mud slide slammed into about 30 shanties, followed by another that swept away a house, Uy said by telephone.
About 19 people, most of them miners, were treated for injuries, Uy said.
Three of them were airlifted in an air force helicopter that brought in a medical team, police said.
WARNINGS IGNORED
The landslide-prone area was saturated after days of rain and residents had ignored warnings to leave, Uy said.
“We have been asking them to leave, and we are planning to cordon the area,” Uy said. “We are happy to have this gold mining area here. But the dark side are the deaths that occur in these natural calamities.”
The area around Mount Diwata, about 930km southeast of Manila, has about 40,000 residents, mostly miners and their families.
Forecasters said additional rain over the southern Philippines could trigger more flooding and landslides.
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