A huge landslide has struck a remote village in Papua New Guinea, with bodies being recovered by villagers.<\/p>\n
The landslide reportedly hit Kaokalam Village in Enga Province, about 600 kilometres north-west of Port Moresby, about 3am.<\/p>\n
Residents say current estimates of the death toll sit above 100, though authorities have not confirmed this figure.<\/p>\n
Porgera Women in Business Association president Elizabeth Laruma said houses were flattened when the side of a nearby mountain gave way.<\/p>\n
“It has occurred when people were still asleep in the early hours and the entire village has gone down,” Laruma said.<\/p>\n
“From what I can presume, it’s about 100-plus people who are buried beneath the ground.”<\/p>\n
Papua New Guinea police have not responded to the ABC’s request for comment.<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether emergency services have visited the remote area.<\/p>\n
Ninga Role, who is from Kaokalam but is attending university in Madang, said he received news of the damage this morning.<\/p>\n
He estimates at least four of his relatives have been killed in the landslide.<\/p>\n
“I feel very sad. And I feel sad for the whole community,” he told the ABC.<\/p>\n
“They have lost their lives, their loved ones, their properties.”<\/p>\n
Videos shared on social media show residents scaling huge rocks and pulling bodies from rubble and beneath trees.<\/p>\n
But it is difficult work, according to Role.<\/p>\n
“There are some huge stones and plants, trees. The buildings [have] collapsed,” he said.<\/p>\n
“These things are making it hard to find the bodies fast.”<\/p>\n
The landslide has also blocked an access road to the town of Porgera, where a large gold mine is located.<\/p>\n
Laruma said people in the area were concerned about access to goods and services.<\/p>\n
“When this road is being closed off – and I don’t know how long it’s going to take – it’s going to have a really big impact on the people out there in terms of goods, fuel and services,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to have a big impact on the lives of the people of Porgera and the mine as well.”<\/p>\n
She has called on the PNG government and non-governmental organisations to assist with immediate relief to the area.<\/p>\n
VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A huge landslide has struck a remote village in Papua New Guinea, with bodies being recovered by villagers. The landslide reportedly hit Kaokalam Village in Enga Province, about 600 kilometres north-west of Port Moresby, about 3am. Residents say current estimates of the death toll sit above 100, though authorities have not confirmed this figure. Porgera […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,208,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-lifestyle","category-world"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9934,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions\/9934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}