Papua New Guinea landslide: Efforts to rescue trapped villagers

Rescuers are rushing to villages where hundreds are believed to have been killed after a massive landslide hit Papua New Guinea’s isolated Enga province.

Humanitarian aid group CARE Australia said an emergency response team made up of medical and military personnel had arrived at the scene of the isolated landslide.

But the rugged terrain and damage to major roads are complicating rescue efforts, with the highway cut off and the site only accessible by helicopter, it added.

The landslide buried hundreds of homes in the highlands of Enga in the north of the southwest Pacific island nation at around 3am local time on Friday (6pm GMT on Thursday).

It remains unclear how many people are trapped under the rubble.

“Although this area is not densely populated, we are concerned the number of deaths may be disproportionately high,” Care Australia said in an earlier statement.

Enga provincial MP Amos Akyem told the Guardian that reports from the ground said “the landslides have buried more than 300 people and 1,182 homes.”

Akyem, quoted by The Guardian, explained that rescue efforts were being hampered by the closure of the road connecting the affected village of Yambari with the capital.

Yambari is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the provincial capital, Wabag.

United Nations official Serhan Aktpurak told The Associated Press that the area affected by the landslides was the size of three to four football fields.

There are 3,895 people living in Yambari village, he added.

Aktoprak said some houses in the village were spared by the landslide but the death toll could exceed 100 “given the scale of the disaster.”

Fears of further landslides are complicating efforts to provide relief to victims.

“The land continues to slide and move, making work dangerous,” Aktoprak told AFP.

Residents in the surrounding area described how trees and debris from the collapsed mountainside had buried parts of their neighborhoods, leaving them cut off.

Footage from the scene showed locals navigating terrain covered with boulders and uprooted trees, pulling bodies from under rubble and trees.

A resident of a nearby village said when he arrived at the scene of the landslide “there was nothing left of the house.” [left]” “.

“Everything was just dirt and flat,” Dominic Lau told Australian broadcaster ABC.

“There was nothing there, just rocks and dirt. There were no people or houses to be seen,” Lau added.

Enga provincial governor Peter Ipatas told AFP that up to “six villages” were affected by the landslide, describing it as an “unprecedented natural disaster”.

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

The Papua New Guinea Red Cross had earlier said an emergency response team had been dispatched to the scene, including members of the Governor’s Office, police, defence force and local NGOs.

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape said on Friday that authorities were responding to the disaster.

He said the government was working with local authorities “to carry out rescue operations, recover bodies and rebuild infrastructure.”