Papua New Guinea says over 2,000 buried alive in deadliest landslide of 21st century

The Papua New Guinea government said that the landslide last Friday (May 24) has killed more than 2,000 people so far as the country in the southwestern Pacific formally asked for global help. The casualty figure surpasses the 2006 Southern Leyte, Philippines landslide tragedy where a total of 1,126 people lost their lives as the debris flow from a landslide followed 10 days of heavy rain. With over 2,000 reported dead by the Papua New Guinea government, the May 24 landslide has now emerged as the deadliest landslide of the 21st century.

The government figure is around three times more than the United Nations' estimate of 670.

In a letter to the United Nations resident coordinator, the acting director of the South Pacific island nation’s National Disaster Center said the landslide "buried more than 2000 people alive" and caused "major destruction".

The International Organization for Migration, which is working closely with the country's government, has not changed its estimated death toll of 670 released on Sunday, pending new evidence.

"We are not able to dispute what the government suggests but we are not able to comment on it," Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the UNmigrant agency’s mission in Papua New Guinea was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"As time goes in such a massive undertaking, the number will remain fluid," Aktoprak added.

Mana and Papua New Guinea’s defence minister, Billy Joseph, flew on Sunday in an Australian military helicopter from the capital of Port Moresby to Yambali, 600 kilometres (370 miles) to the northwest, to gain a firsthand perspective of the scale of the tragedy.

The purpose of the visit was to decide whether Papua New Guinea’s government needed to officially request more international support.

Earth-moving equipment used by Papua New Guinea’s military was being transported to the disaster scene 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the east coast city of Lae.

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Officials cited by the Associated Press claimed thatvillagers are divided over whether heavy machinery should be allowed to dig up and potentially further damage the bodies of their buried relatives.

(With inputs from agencies)