Death toll from landslide in Philippines climbs to 92
36 people still missing, says government agency
Residents carry the coffins as they attend a mass burial ceremony for retrieved bodies from the landslide which hit village of Masara in Municipality of Maco, in the nearby town Mawab of Davao de Oro, Philippines on February 14, 2024.
ISTANBUL/ANKARA
The death toll from a landslide last week in the southern Philippines climbed to 92 on Thursday, according to the Philippine News Agency.
Search efforts have yielded many bodies since the tragedy occurred on Feb. 6 outside a mine operations area in Mindanao owned by Apex Mining Co.
Thirty-six people are still unaccounted for, according to the Management of the Dead and Missing, a government agency.
The landslide hit a waiting area where workers were aboard two buses around 7.30 p.m. local time (1130GMT).
Edward Macapili, an official of Davao de Oro province, emphasized in a statement that the disaster was "the most serious landslide experienced in the region in the last 10 years.”
Saying that they have not yet set a timetable for how long search and rescue operations will last, he noted that the height of the soil and rubble covering some settlements due to the landslide was up to 50 meters (164 feet).
Macapili said 32 people have been rescued injured and 51 people are still missing.
More than 1,100 families have reportedly been evacuated from the disaster zone.
