Papua New Guinea: Massive landslides feared to kill many

Massive landslides have hit six remote villages in Papua New Guinea, fearing scores of people are dead, local authorities and aid agencies say.

The landslide occurred at around 3am on Friday (7pm Thursday GMT) in the Enga Highlands in the north of the southwest Pacific island nation, burying more than 100 homes.

It was not immediately clear how many people were trapped in the rubble and no official casualties were confirmed.

Enga provincial governor Peter Ipatas told AFP it was an “unprecedented natural disaster.”

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape said the government had dispatched disaster management officials to the site of the landslide and “has begun rescue efforts, retrieving bodies and rebuilding infrastructure.”

“We will release further information once we have been fully briefed on the scale of the damage and loss of life,” Marape said in a statement.

Images on the internet showed dozens of people climbing onto fallen rocks to assess the damage caused by the landslide, which appeared to have destroyed many homes and uprooted trees.

Rescue teams are reportedly struggling to clear the rubble.

In a video posted by Facebook user Kinduppan Kambi from Kaokalam village in Enga, people can be heard crying.

“There are reports of deaths and a number of injuries, but the exact numbers are yet to be confirmed,” a Papua New Guinea Red Cross spokesman said.

He added that a rapid response team consisting of officials from the provincial governor’s office, police, defense forces and local NGOs had been dispatched to the scene.

International humanitarian organisation CARE told the BBC it was “currently assessing the situation” about the incident.

Enga is more than 600 kilometres by road from the country’s capital, Port Moresby.