More than 2,000 people were ‘buried alive’ in their sleep when a devastating landslide struck Papua New Guinea on Friday, local authorities say.
Six villages in a remote part of the Pacific island nation were levelled in the early hours of Friday morning.
Hundreds of homes across a six mile-wide area are believed to have been buried under an eight metre-deep layer of mud, limestone and uprooted vegetation.
In one neighbourhood where 50 to 60 homes were destroyed, only six people, including a child, were pulled from the rubble alive, the United Nations said.
The true scale of the disaster is difficult to gauge as many Papuans live in very rural communities which have little interaction with the national government.
Many of the victims may not be documented at all – a humanitarian agency said the area was ‘a place of refuge for those displaced by [nearby] conflicts’.
Local officials initially said around 100 people had died, while the UN estimated the death toll at 670 over the weekend.
The UN figure was based on calculations that at least 150 homes in one village were buried.
But on Monday, Papua New Guinea’s disaster agency heavily revised the death toll upwards.
‘The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country,’ an official said.
Humanitarian group CARE Australia previously said at least 4,000 people in total have been affected by the disaster.
Most of the area can only be reached by helicopter as the deep debris has cut off road access.
Survivors were seen returning to the scene on foot and desperately searching through earth and rubble by hand for missing loved ones.
Serhan Aktoprak, head of the local UN migration agency, added: ‘Hopes to take the people out alive from the rubble have diminished now.’
The cause of the landslide remains unclear, though some have suggested it could be linked to a 4.5 magnitude earthquake which hit an area 65 miles west a week earlier.
Emergency convoys have been delivering food, water and other essentials.
The government of Australia, Papua New Guinea’s closest neighbour after Indonesia, is assisting efforts by local authorities and humanitarian agencies.
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