DAVAO (AP) – A landslide set off by days of heavy rain buried a house where people were holding prayers in the southern Philippines, killing at least 10 people, including five children, officials said yesterday.
Two people were injured, and at least one more villager remained unaccounted for following the landslide in a remote mountain village in the gold-mining town of Monkayo in Davao de Oro province, Ednar Dayanghirang, the regional chief of the government’s Office of Civil Defence said.
Three more bodies were found yesterday, after the search was paused mid-afternoon on Thursday due to the risk of another landslide.
“They were praying in the house when the landslide hit,” Dayanghirang told The Associated Press by telephone on Thursday night.
“It’s sad but it’s the reality on the ground.”
People living near the village were ordered to evacuate due to fears of more land and mud slides due to intermittent downpours, Monkayo Mayor Manuel Zamora said.
Days of heavy rains also flooded low-lying villages and displaced more than 36,000 people in Davao de Oro and three other provinces, the Office of Civil Defence said. The weather began to clear yesterday in some areas.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest to hit on record, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than five million in the central Philippines.
