PORT MORESBY: Thousands of people living near the site of a deadly Papua New Guinea landslide have been told they may have to evacuate because of the risk of further slips, a top provincial official said on Tuesday.
"We're trying to evacuate," Enga provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka said. "Every hour you can hear rock breaking — it is like a bomb or gunshot and the rocks keep falling down," Tsaka said.
The Enga official initially put the number to be evacuated at almost 7,900, but later said that was in fact the estimated population in the area affected by the landslide.
"Most of them are on notice," he said, without giving a new figure for the number of evacuees. "People are being asked to relocate to ensure safety."
A hillside community in Enga province was almost wiped out when a chunk of Mount Mungalo collapsed early on Friday morning, smothering scores of homes and the people sleeping inside them.
Papua New Guinea's national disaster centre fears more than 2,000 people were buried, but only five bodies and the leg of a sixth have so far been pulled from the rubble.
Rescue workers are trying to remove people from the area to be sure "the ongoing landslide is not going to take any more lives than those already lost", Tsaka said.
The area has been "completely devastated" and the community is "traumatised", he said.
"Entire families buried under debris," he said. "Everyone in the Enga province has a friend or family member that was killed, is missing or was impacted by this tragedy," he added.
"People are digging with their hands and fingers."
Tsaka said the area was heavily populated with homes, businesses, churches and schools.
"It has been completely wiped out. It is the surface of the moon — it is just rocks," he said.
Tsaka said he spoke at an emergency online meeting with foreign governments on Tuesday morning and asked for immediate assistance to deal with the landslide risks, manage the response and ensure the rapid delivery of supplies. "I am not equipped to deal with this tragedy," he said.
Relief efforts have been delayed by the remoteness of the site in Papua New Guinea's rugged highlands as well as severed road links and tribal fighting nearby. — AFP
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