At least 670 people have been confirmed killed in landslide that hit in northern city of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea on Friday.
According to local officials, the landslide hit the Pacific nation at around 3am local time on Friday and levelled the mountainous Kaokalam village in Enga Province – about 370 miles (600km) northwest of the capital Port Moresby.
United Nations Chief of the International Organization for Migration mission on the island nation, Serhan Aktoprak, who also confirmed the deaths in a statement on Sunday, said the revised number of dead is based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials showed that more than 150 homes had been buried, topping the previous estimate of 60 homes released on Saturday.
“Hopes to take the people out alive from the rubble have diminished now,” said Aktoprak.
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“The situation is terrible with the land still sliding. The water is running and this is creating a massive risk for eveyrone involved,” added Aktoprak, who is based in capital, Port Moresby.
The UN also estimated that more than 4,000 people have been impacted after more than a thousand homes were buried.
According to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), more than six villages were hit by the landslide in the province’s Mulitaka region.
“Three bodies were pulled from an area where 40 to 50 homes were destroyed. Six people, including a child, were pulled from the rubble alive,’ the report say.
Local officials say survivors searched through tonnes of earth and rubble by hand looking for missing relatives while a first emergency convoy delivered food, water and other provisions on Saturday.
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