Rescue crews in the Philippines spoke of a “miracle” today after rescuing a child nearly sixty hours after a landslide that claimed the lives of at least 11 people and crushed another hundred or so in a village where mines are located, in the southern part of the archipelago.
A little girl, whose age has not yet been determined, was found by rescue workers digging with their bare hands and shovels in the hope of finding survivors in the village of Masara, in the southern part of Mindanao island, Edouard Macapilli, in charge of the island, told AFP. of the Davao de Oro Province Disaster Management Agency.
This is a “miracle”, Mr. Makapili emphasized, adding that “it gives hope to the rescue teams. A child's endurance is generally less than that of an adult, yet the child survived,” he added.
A video showing a rescue worker holding the child, who is crying and covered in mud, was uploaded to Facebook. “We can see” in the video that “the child does not have any obvious injuries,” Mr. Makapili observed.
The father saw the child who was then taken to a health center for tests, he added.
Race against time
The landslide, caused by heavy rains, occurred on Tuesday night, destroying houses and crushing three buses and another vehicle that had gone to pick up workers at a gold mine, as reported by Agence France-Presse and relayed by Agence France-Presse.
At least 11 people died and another 31 were injured, while more than a hundred are missing, according to official data.
Rescue crews are in a race against time to find other survivors in the thick mud as rainfall continues in the region.
Landslides are common across much of the Southeast Asian archipelago due to mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall and deforestation due to mining, burning of land for farmers and illegal logging.
Mindanao, the second largest island of the Philippines, has been experiencing heavy rains for weeks. Dozens of landslides and floods have occurred, forcing tens of thousands of residents to leave their homes.
Hundreds of residents of Masar and four neighboring villages have been forced to flee and are being accommodated in reception centers amid fears of more landslides. Schools in the area have suspended their operations.
In the area affected by the landslide, construction had been “banned” after previous ones in 2007 and 2008, Mr. Makapili stressed. “People had been asked to leave this location and he had been offered others to settle in, but he is stubborn and has returned,” he added.
Source: News Beast
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