Death toll climbs to 22 in Philippine monsoon landslide

Rescuers are still looking for 50 more people missing after a massive hillside collapsed on several rural communities near Naga on the tourist island of Cebu.

The rescue effort came as the nation was still reeling from Typhoon Mangkhut, which killed 88, mostly in a massive landslide in the country's mountainous north.
AFP

The rescue effort came as the nation was still reeling from Typhoon Mangkhut, which killed 88, mostly in a massive landslide in the country's mountainous north.

The death toll from a monsoon landslide in the central Philippines has risen to 22, officials said on Friday, as rescuers dug through the night in a frantic search for survivors of the latest tragedy in the storm-hit nation.

Dozens were still missing after part of a massive hillside collapsed onThursday on several rural communities near Naga on the tourist island of Cebu.

The rescue effort came as the nation was still reeling from Typhoon Mangkhut, which killed 88, mostly in a massive landslide in the country's mountainous north.

Rescuers on Cebu pulled 22 bodies from the rubble within 24 hours of the latest disaster, provincial disaster office spokesman Julius Regner said.

Around 200 police, firemen, and specialists using heavy equipment were still looking for about 50 people, Regner said.

"We hope to recover everyone today so as not to prolong the agony of the relatives," he added.

AFP

Rescuers search for survivors at the landslide site in Naga City, on the popular tourist island of Cebu on September 20, 2018.

Heavy monsoon rain

Cebu was not directly hit by Mangkhut, the world's strongest typhoon this year, but has been pounded by heavy monsoon rain for days, making the slopes dangerously loose.

Police forced about 20 people to vacate nearby homes and move to evacuation centres overnight Thursday out of concern there could be more landslides, Regner said.

The efforts came as searchers in the Philippines' north continued to work to recover the corpses of suspected dozens of people buried in a landslide unleashed on Saturday by Typhoon Mangkhut.

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