Myanmar landslide kills 41
The death toll from a landslide triggered by monsoon rains in eastern Myanmar rose to at least 41, an official said late yesterday, as emergency workers continued for a second night their desperate search through thick mud for the scores feared missing.
A huge brown gash on the hillside marked where the deluge of mud flooded onto Ye Pyar Kone village in Mon state on Friday, wiping out 27 homes.
Search and rescue teams worked through Friday night and into late Saturday, using excavators and their bare hands to recover bodies from the deep sludge.
“The death toll has risen to 41,” township administrator Zaw Moe Aung told AFP yesterday.
Some farm animals, like cows and goats, were found alive, but “there are no humans left alive,” he said, adding that the search operations will push through for a second night.
So far, 47 people have been injured while officials believe that about 80 people could still be missing.
Myanmar is battered annually by a monsoon season which strikes countries across Southeast Asia, leaving tens of thousands displaced from flooded homes and setting off deadly landslides.
Aerial pictures of Ye Pyar Kone village showed shattered remnants of rooftops and other debris from the houses strewn next to trucks knocked over by the force of the onslaught.
Its hillside temple was left inundated, leaving the pagoda’s golden spire peeking out from beneath the mud.
Htay Htay Win, 32, told AFP that two of her daughters and five other relatives had still not been found.
She only survived because she had left her home minutes earlier to look at the flooding nearby.
“I heard a huge noise and turned round to see my home being hit by the mud,” she said, crying.
Rescue workers yesterday continued to carry out excavated bodies wrapped in plastic to waiting ambulances, wading through pools of water and ankle-deep sludge.
Crying relatives of the missing watched on helpless under a steady torrent of rain, as nearby floodwaters edged closer to the village.
Torrential downpours have burst riverbanks across the country while coastal communities have been warned of higher tides. Around 89,000 people have been displaced by floods in recent weeks, although many have since been able to return home, according to the UN.
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