International Desk: More than 670 people are believed to have died in a landslide in Papua New Guinea. A UN official told the AFP news agency on Sunday.
“Around 150 houses have been leveled… more than 670 people are believed to have been killed,” said Serhan Aktoprak, an official with the UN’s migration agency.
He said, ‘The situation is dire as the ground is still slippery. The water is still flowing, and it poses a risk to all concerned.’
A landslide hit Kaokalam village in Enga province, north of the southwestern Pacific island nation, on Friday. The once-thriving mountain village has almost completely disappeared, AFP reported.
Aktoprak said, “Locals are using sticks, spades, and forks used in agriculture to retrieve the bodies buried under the ground.”
He said that more than a thousand people have been displaced due to the disaster. Farmland and water supplies were almost completely wiped out.
