Desperate scramble to save lives in Papua New Guinea after a deadly landslide tears through a village

A devastating landslide in Papua New Guinea's Enga province has left hundreds feared dead, with rescuers racing to reach remote villages buried under rocks and soil amid treacherous conditions.

Emergency crews are scrambling to get to the isolated communities in the mountainous area of Enga province in Papua New Guinea where a mudslide occurred in the early hours of Friday and it is believed that hundreds of people died. The tragedy resulted in the death of an estimated 300 people and more than a thousand houses in the village of Yambali, buried by a massive flow of rocks and soil.

A quick intervention team comprising medical personnel, soldiers, and volunteers from the affected area has been able to get to the remote area affected by the disaster, but steep slopes and closed roads are making it extremely difficult to rescue the victims. The main road has been blocked and the only means of transport that can get to the affected region is by air through helicopters.

”Although there are not many people living in the area, we are worried that the number of deaths might be relatively high,” said Care Australia, one of the humanitarian organizations involved in the relief effort. Amos Akem, a member of parliament for Enga province, said to The Guardian that the landslide ”killed more than 300 people and 1,182 houses.

The landslide displaced three to four football pitches across Yambali which is home to nearly 4,000 people according to United Nations staff on the ground. Given the scale of the tragedy, the number of victims may exceed 100 people, said the representative of the United Nations for Turkey Vijay Aktoprak.

However, the rescue teams are still in danger of having more landslides since the ground surrounding the area is still very unstable. ”The land goes on shifting and sinking, and that is why it is risky for people to work in,” Aktoprak said to AFP.

Also Read: Disaster Strikes PNG: Villages Buried by Massive Landslide, Death Toll Rises

Testimonies of survivors presented a rather somber picture, where people spoke of extracting corpses from the debris, amidst boulders, felled trees, and sludge. Dominic Lau, a resident of a nearby village added, “There were no houses [left]. It was just flat with soil. ”