200 dead, 1,500 missing in Philippine landslide
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-17 15:19

A landslide rumbled down a mountainside on an eastern Philippine island Friday, burying hundreds of houses and a school packed with elementary students. Red Cross officials estimated at least 200 dead and 1,500 missing.

"It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled," survivor Dario Libatan told Manila radio DZMM. "I could not see any house standing anymore."

Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, said an entire village appeared to have been buried, with perhaps 200 dead and 1,500 missing. The landslide on Leyte island followed two weeks of nonstop rains.

"There is no body count yet, it's our estimate," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Geneva. "We're mobilizing rescue operations. This areas is infamous for landslides."

The governor of Southern Leyte province, Rosette Lerias, told radio DZBB that 500 houses in Ginsahugan village in St. Bernard town were feared buried. The elementary school had been in session when the landslide struck at around 9 a.m. There were no immediate estimates of casualties from the school.

"The ground has really been soaked because of the rain," Lerias said. "The trees were sliding down upright with the mud."

Provincial board member Eva Tomol said only three houses remained standing in the village, which had a population of about 2,500. Six survivors were being treated at a hospital.

"We are hoping that only 1,000 out of the estimated 2,500 residents of the village are missing," Tomol said. "That's the rough estimate of the mayor, based on the assumption that it's the mothers and the children who are left behind at home while the fathers work outside."

In November 1991, about 6,000 people were killed on central Leyte island in floods and landslides triggered by a tropical storm.