The Papua New Guinea National Disaster Center states that A huge avalanche buried more than 2,000 people It devastated the remote northern town in the early hours of Friday.

According to a letter from the center dated Sunday and sent to the UN coordinator in the country to which the agency had access EFE this Monday, “More than 2,000 people were buried alive” due to a “massive avalanche” that occurred near the Porgera gold mine, in Enga province, in the north of the country.

The avalanche that occurred on Friday at 3 a.m. “caused great destruction of buildings, gardens and has had a huge impact on the economic life of the country,” the letter said, adding that the main access road to the Porgera mine was “completely blocked.”

“The situation remains unstable because the landslide continues slowlywhich continues to pose a danger to rescue teams and survivors,” the letter emphasizes.

UN sources consulted EFE report difficulty in accurately determining the number of deaths and missing partly due to the time-consuming rescue operation due to the unstable terrain and difficult access to the area.

According to Sunday data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has six staff working in the disaster zone, They estimated the number of houses at 150, and those buried at 670. under an avalanche, and “hopes of finding them alive are fading.”

Avalanche also has about 1000 people displacedAccording to this agency.

Collapse of part of the mountain early Friday morning He struck the city of Kaokalam.about 600 kilometers from the capital Port Moresby, burying houses in a layer six to eight meters deep.

Affected region It usually suffers from heavy rains and floods.and landslides are not unusual in a country where, despite its wealth of natural resources, much of its more than nine million people live in extreme poverty and are isolated due to a lack of communications and infrastructure, especially in remote locations. like the current catastrophe.

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Papua New Guinea It is located on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire. an area of ​​great seismic and volcanic activity, shaken by about 7,000 earthquakes per year, most of them moderate.

(EFE)