Typhoon Mangkhut: dozens feared dead in Philippines after landslide at mining camp
Disaster prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to repeat his threat to shut down mines across the country
Philippine rescuers used shovels and their bare hands to claw through mounds of rocky soil on Monday as they desperately looked for dozens of people feared buried beneath a landslide unleashed by Typhoon Mangkhut. Authorities said the confirmed death toll from the storm was 66, but it was expect to go higher.
Searchers have already pulled 11 bodies from the vast debris field in Itogon, in the disaster-hit nation’s north. Up to 40 may still be buried, with little hope they have survived.
“We believe that those people there, maybe 99 per cent, are already dead,” Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan told reporters. “It will continue until they (searchers) surrender. There are relatives among the rescuers who are still hoping they will be able to find their kin alive.”
A massive hillside, weakened by the monster storm’s lashing rains, collapsed on the miners’ bunkhouse about 500 metres (546 yards) below.
