Dozens feared dead after ‘massive’ landslide hits Papua New Guinea
Al Jazeera
Governor of Enga province says the disaster caused ‘loss of life and property’ in at least six villages.
A massive landslide has struck Papua New Guinea’s highlands, local officials and aid groups said, with dozens believed to have been killed.
The disaster hit Kaokalam village in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province, about 600km (370 miles) northwest of the South Pacific island nation’s capital of Port Moresby, at about 3am local time on Friday (17:00 GMT Thursday).
According to reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) and local media, about 100 people are believed to have been killed, but authorities have not confirmed this figure.
“Authorities say the scale of the landslide is ‘massive’, but they still cannot confirm the death toll,” said Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from Jakarta in Indonesia.
She said the disaster affected a community of mostly subsistence farmers living in a “remote and quite hilly area where landslides are common”.
