(Manila) Philippine rescuers hailed it “a miracle” Friday after a child was rescued from the mud about 60 hours after a landslide that left 27 dead and nearly 90 missing in southern Manila. archipelago.
The girl, aged three according to the Philippine Red Cross, was found by rescuers. Since the disaster, they have been searching with bare hands and shovels to try to find survivors in the mining village of Masara, on the island of Mindanao, in the south of the Philippines, Edward Macapili, head of the provincial disaster management agency.
“It’s a miracle,” he said. “It gives hope to the rescuers. A child’s resilience is generally less than that of adults, and yet the child survived,” he said.
A video showing a rescuer carrying the crying, mud-covered child in his arms was shared on Facebook. “We can see from the social media posts that the child has no visible injuries,” Macapili added.
The little survivor was able to be taken for a medical examination, after seeing her father, he said.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE RED CROSS VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The girl was taken to a hospital in Mawab.
The Red Cross posted photos on Facebook of its employees transporting the little girl, wrapped in a survival blanket and hooked up to an oxygen tank, to a hospital in the neighboring municipality of Mawab.
At least 27 dead
The landslide, caused by heavy rains, occurred on Tuesday evening, destroying houses and swallowing up three buses and a vehicle that was supposed to pick up workers from a gold mine.
According to the latest report from the authorities, 27 people were killed and 32 injured, while 89 others are still missing.
As the rain continued to fall on Friday, rescue workers continued to do their best to find other survivors in the mud.
Landslides are common in much of the Philippines due to mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall and deforestation linked to mining, but also slash-and-burn agriculture and illegal logging.
Heavy rains in parts of Mindanao, the Philippines’ second largest island, for weeks have caused dozens of landslides and floods that have forced tens of thousands of people to seek refuge in emergency shelters. .
Hundreds of families from Masara and four neighboring villages had to evacuate their homes and take refuge in emergency centers for fear of further landslides.
Nearby schools have suspended classes. The area affected by the landslide had been declared “prohibited for construction” after previous landslides in 2007 and 2008, Mr. Macapili said.
“People were asked to leave this place and they were given a place to settle, but people became stubborn and came back,” he said.