At least 25 people have been killed and another 100 are missing in the southern Philippines after a predawn landslide struck a community of gold prospectors.
Officials said the wall of earth struck the remote mountain community of shanty houses near Pantukan town on Mindanao island.
An army unit was digging out buried homes and bodies using shovels and other hand tools.
Lieutenant Colonel Leopoldo Galon, an army spokesman, said 16 people had been pulled out from under rubble and rushed to a nearby hospital.
The government mining office has listed the copper-gold and gold-mining operations in the area as a priority investment project.
But it banned small-scale mining in the area last year over safety concerns.
In April 2011, about 20 people were killed in the same town of Pantukan in rain-induced mudslides.
compiled from Reuters and other agency reports
Officials said the wall of earth struck the remote mountain community of shanty houses near Pantukan town on Mindanao island.
An army unit was digging out buried homes and bodies using shovels and other hand tools.
Lieutenant Colonel Leopoldo Galon, an army spokesman, said 16 people had been pulled out from under rubble and rushed to a nearby hospital.
The government mining office has listed the copper-gold and gold-mining operations in the area as a priority investment project.
But it banned small-scale mining in the area last year over safety concerns.
In April 2011, about 20 people were killed in the same town of Pantukan in rain-induced mudslides.
compiled from Reuters and other agency reports
