Philippine landslides may have killed 200

Rescuers dig through the mud for survivors or bodies in the village of Rizal near Surigao city in the southern Philippine Island of Mindanao yesterday. Landslides and floods triggered by a week of heavy rains have left an estimated 200 people dead and missing in MIndanao and in the central island of Leyte. PHOTO: AFP

Melchor Rosales, executive director of the National Disaster Coordination Centre, said the death toll has risen to at least 83 people, including 61 in the hard-hit central province of Southern Leyte, and 123 others were missing.

Officials feared the final fatality count will rise as bad weather, blocked roads and downed power and telephone lines hampered rescue and recovery work. Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias, who returned from a devastated village in San Francisco town late Sunday, reported 16 more dead in that coastal area, which should place the official count at 99.

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"I just came from a very, very depressing site," Lerias told The Associated Press by cell phone.

She said the mountainside village of 360 people, called Punta, was a picture of mayhem, with more than half of its 83 houses either destroyed or buried under huge mounds of earth, debris and coconut trees.

"There was mud all over, you couldn't see anything but rooftops with the houses submerged in mud. There's debris, wood, old clothes, kitchen utensils strewn all around," Lerias said. "The rescuers were using heavy equipment and in one spot they dug up the hand of a child."

Lerias said an 89-year-old man was rescued alive from the mud near where a Bible was also found and piles of bodies. A 14-year-old girl was also dug up alive and both appeared to have survived in an air pocket, she said.

Rescuers have so far found 49 bodies in Punta, including several villagers, who sought shelter in a relatively huge house thinking it was safely far from the mountain. But mud flows from the mountainside engulfed the house and the sea beyond, killing them all, she said.

A village leader was also killed by fallen trees in a nearby village, she said, bringing the number of dead in San Francisco to 50 as opposed to 34 in the official national count.

Lerias said at least three more villages in Leyte remained beyond the reach of rescuers due to blocked roads and downed power and communications. While approaching a village in San Ricardo town Sunday, she said her boat turned back because of huge waves.

"We're still conducting search, rescue and retrieval operations," said Rosales.