NATION

Philippines landslide toll jumps to 54 dead

Agence France-Presse · Feb 11, 2024, 8:35 PM

n this handout photo from the Eastern Mindanao Command, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) taken on February 7, 2024 and received on February 8, 2024, shows responders conduct search and rescue operations in Maco, Davao de Oro. At least 11 people were injured when a rain-induced landslide buried two buses picking up workers from a gold mine in the southern Philippines, officials said. Rescuers used their bare hands and shovels to dig through mud on February 8 in a desperate search for survivors of a landslide in the Philippines as the death toll rose to 10, officials said. — (Photo by Handout / Armed Forces of the Philippines' Eastern Mindanao Command / AFP)

The death toll from a massive Philippine landslide near a gold mine abruptly rose to 54 on Sunday, local officials said.

Nineteen bodies were recovered from beneath the rubble in the southern mountain village of Masara on Sunday, with 63 other miners and residents still missing, said the municipality of Maco, and provincial disaster official Randy Loy.

The previous death toll given stood at 35.

The landslide buried a bus terminal for employees of a gold mining firm and 55 nearby houses on Tuesday night, leaving 32 other people injured.

Rocks, mud and trees slid more than 700 metres (2,300 feet) down a steep mountainside near the Apex Mining Co. concession, burying an 8.9-hectare (22-acre) section of the Masara community.

A three-year-old girl was pulled alive from under the rubble on Friday, in what rescuers described as a "miracle".

The authorities have vowed to continue the search until everyone listed as missing is recovered.

Landslides are a frequent hazard across much of the archipelago nation due to the mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall and widespread deforestation from mining, slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging.

Rain has pounded parts of the southern region on and off for weeks, triggering dozens of landslides and floods that have forced tens of thousands of people into emergency shelters.

Massive earthquakes have also destabilised the region in recent months.

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