The landslide caused by heavy rains in a mining village in the southern Philippines last Tuesday claimed at least 68 lives while rescuers had given up all hope of finding survivors, authorities announced.
• Also read: Philippines: Child rescued almost 60 hours after landslide
• Also read: Landslide in the Philippines: According to a new count, at least eleven dead
More than a dozen bodies were recovered from the mud on Monday and 51 people are still missing, including minors and villagers, according to the latest count released by local authorities.
The previous count was 54 dead and 63 missing.
The landslide in Masara village, near a gold mine, buried the bus station for mine employees and 55 houses in this village on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
Rocks, mud and trees fell more than 700 meters onto a mountain near the mine, burying nearly nine hectares.
“It has been almost a week since the incident and … we assume that no one lives there anymore,” said Edward Macapili, spokesman for the provincial water management office. Disasters in Davao de Oro.
“There is already a foul smell in the area and we now need to speed up the extraction,” he added.
According to Mr Macapili, an area about 50 meters deep still needs to be searched.
Authorities have promised to continue the search until all the missing people are found.
Landslides are common across much of the Philippines due to mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall and mining-related deforestation, as well as slash-and-burn agriculture and illegal logging.
For weeks, heavy rains in parts of Mindanao, the Philippines' second-largest island, have caused dozens of landslides and floods, forcing tens of thousands of people to seek shelter in emergency shelters.