At least 68 people are now known to have died after a landslide swept through a goldmining village in the Philippines almost a week ago. Officials say there are still 51 people missing following Tuesday’s disaster in Davao de Oro province, but rescue workers admit there is little hope of finding any more survivors.
A three-year-old girl was the last person pulled alive from the mud. Her rescue – after more than 60 hours buried – was described as “a miracle”.
Edward Macapili, a disaster agency official of the Davao de Oro province, said at the time it have given “hope to the rescuers”.
But on Monday, those hopes appeared to have faded.
“It is almost a week after the incident and… we are assuming that no one is alive there,” Mr Macapili told AFP news agency.
The landslide struck Tuesday night, destroying 55 homes and engulfing three buses and a jeepney – a type of minibus – waiting to pick up workers from the gold mine. Lea Anora, a unit member of the Management of the Dead and the Missing (MDM), told ABS-CBN News that the death toll so far included 42 residents and 26 mining employees. More than 30 people were injured.
Credit: bbc.com
