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A massive landslide struck remote villages in Papua New Guinea’s highlands Friday, with many homes buried and scores of residents feared dead.
The disaster hit an isolated part of Enga province at around 3:00 a.m. local time, according to government officials, when many villagers were at home asleep.
Provincial governor Peter Ipatas told AFP that “there has been a big landslide causing loss of life and property.”
He later said “six villages” had been affected and described it as an “unprecedented natural disaster.”
Three bodies have so far been recovered, but there are fears that hundreds more may be entombed. The true toll may take days or weeks to become clear.
Steven Kandai, a community leader at the scene, told AFP that many residents had no time to flee.
“All of a sudden there was a big landslip. The mountain just collapsed all of a sudden while people were still sleeping,” he said, adding their homes were “completely buried.”
Others “heard a huge sound from rocks falling down and then escaped.
