U.N. migration agency’s mission in the South Pacific island nation says that the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials
Abu Dhabi
The International Organization for Migration on Sunday increased its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670 as emergency responders and traumatized relatives gave up hope that any survivors will now be found.
The Associated Press (AP) quoted Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the U.N. migration agency’s mission in the South Pacific island nation, as saying that the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials that more than 150 homes had been buried by Friday’s landslide. The previous estimate had been 60 homes.
“They are estimating that more than 670 people (are) under the soil at the moment,” Aktoprak told AP.
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Local officials had initially put the death toll on Friday at 100 or more. Only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim had been recovered by Sunday.
Crews have given up hope of finding survivors under the earth and rubble 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet) deep.
Published under the International Cooperation Protocol with Middle East Business | Life Magazine Abu Dhabi
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