Deadly landslide kills 60 in PNG
As many as 60 people are feared dead after a massive landslide wiped out an entire village in a scene of "utter devastation" in Papua New Guinea, reports and aid workers said yesterday.
The disaster struck near a huge ExxonMobil liquefied natural gas project in the country's rugged Southern Highlands on Tuesday as people slept, leaving a trail of destruction.
PNG media said 40 bodies had been recovered and another 20 people were still missing.
The Pacific nation's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill also rushed to the site, near Tari, to offer support and see what help could be provided, an official in his office said Wednesday morning.
Nanduka Yandi, an aid worker for US-based NGO Population Services International, was at the scene of the landslide soon after it happened on Tuesday and said many people were killed, with few escaping the carnage.
"It was really huge. It covered 42 houses and only three or four people managed to escape. Everyone else died," he said.
Describing a scene of "utter devastation" he said tonnes of mud and stones came down in the landslide and "destroyed the whole area."
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