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Thousands more could be evacuated from a Papua New Guinea village over fears of a second fatal landslide, a UN official has warned.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that 670 villagers died from Friday’s landslide in Yambali, in the country’s highlands.
More than 2,000 people were believed to be buried alive, according to the country’s disaster agency, with five bodies already retrieved from the rubble.
Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the IOM’s mission in Papua New Guinea, said on Tuesday his agency is hearing “that another landslide can happen and maybe 8,000 people need to be evacuated”.
“This is a major concern,” he added. “The movement of the land and the debris is causing a serious risk, and overall, the total number of people that may be affected might be 6,000 or more.
“If this debris mass is not stopped, if it continues moving, it can gain speed and further wipe out other communities and villages further down.”
Rescue ongoing after deadly landslide
The landslide took place after a limestone mountainside sheared away at around 3am (6pm in the UK) on Friday.
Boulders, loose earth and splintered trees were then washed down into Yambali by rainfall trapped between the debris and ground.
Footage posted on social media showed locals pulling out people from beneath the rubble and searching through mud, which Mr Aktoprak warned could lead to an outbreak of diseases in the village.
“My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are decaying… water is flowing and this is going to pose serious health risks in relation to contagious diseases,” he said.
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Mr Aktoprak separately told Sky News on Tuesday morning that “rocks are continuing to fall” in Papua New Guinea and added: “The land mass debris is moving towards lower areas.
“And to make [the] situation worse, water has been flowing between the soil on which the mass debris had landed for days.
“Now the water levels – as reported by my colleagues – they are rising up to the upper levels of the debris, making it difficult.”
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Earth-moving equipment from Papua New Guinea’s military is expected to arrive at the village soon, as is support from the Australian government.
Canberra announced an initial aid package of $2.5m (£1.3m) and a disaster response team was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.
Papua New Guinea is a developing Pacific nation comprising mostly subsistence farmers, with over 800 languages spoken.
Some 85% of its 10 million population live in rural areas.
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