Manila. A girl was rescued on Friday after nearly 60 hours from a village buried in a landslide in a gold mine in the southern region of the Philippines.
The age of the rescued girl among the 100 people who went missing after at least 15 people died in the rain-induced landslide has not been disclosed.
He was found by rescue workers using their bare hands and shovels to search for survivors in Masara village on southern Mindanao island, Davao de Oro province disaster agency official Edward Macapilli told AFP. “This is a miracle”, said Makapili, “It has given hope to the rescuers. A child’s resilience is generally less than that of an adult, yet the child survived.’
Searchers say there is little hope that the rest of the missing people will be found alive.
A video of a rescue worker carrying a crying, mud-covered child in his arms has been shared on Facebook.
Macapilli said, ‘It appears that the child was not injured in the social network post.’
The local media quoted the authorities as saying that before taking the girl for a medical examination, her father met the child.
The landslide that occurred on Tuesday night destroyed houses and burnt three buses and a jeep waiting to pick up workers from the gold mine.
According to government officials, at least 15 people died and 31 people were injured in the incident, while more than 100 people are still missing.
After rain fell in the area on Friday, searchers battled time and weather to continue the rescue in the hope of finding anyone else alive in the thick mud.
Rescuers are using heavy earth moving equipment in places but with their bare hands and shovels they have pulled dozens of people safe and 15 dead from the landslide.
Search dogs have also been used to locate those buried in the soil and debris.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to stay in emergency shelters due to dozens of landslides and floods due to weeks of rain in some parts of Mindanao.
Devastating earthquakes in recent months have also destabilized the region.
Hundreds of families from Masra and four surrounding villages had to leave their homes and seek shelter in emergency centers due to the fear of further landslides.
Schools across the municipality have closed classes.
Makapili said that after the landslides in 2007 and 2008, the landslide-affected area was declared a ‘no build zone’, but Gouleh had to suffer from the landslide because he refused to leave his birthplace. He said, ‘If the government had accepted the request to move them, the accident would not have happened.’