Landslides claim 21 lives in the Philippines, bury scores of houses

Rescuers in the Philippines are scrambling to find survivors after a massive landslide killed at least 21 people and buried dozens of homes near a central Philippine mountain.

According to city police chief Roderick Gonzales, the slide surged down on about 30 houses in two rural villages after daybreak in Naga city in Cebu province on Thursday.

Nimrod Parba, a 26-year-old resident, said a relative trapped in a house beneath the rubble managed to call on Thursday morning and begged to be rescued. The calls stopped, however, and the relative could not be reached hours later, Parba said.

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“We’re really hoping we can still recover them alive,” Chiong said, adding the area where the landslide happened was used as a housing site for quarry workers.

The city police chief said at least 64 people were missing following the landslide near an abandoned quarry site in the central province of Cebu.

The incident is coming a week after after local authorities said at least 25 people were killed, including a baby and a toddler, in landslides in mountainous areas that left at least 13 missing.

 

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