More than 2,000 people were buried alive from a huge landslide in Papua New Guinea last week, the national disaster center said Monday, as the terrain and the difficulty of getting aid to the site increase the risk that few survivors will be found

The center raised the number in a letter to the UN released on Monday but dated Sunday. A separate UN agency said the likely death toll was much lower, putting it at more than 670 people.

“The situation remains unstable as the landslide continues to shift slowly, putting both rescue teams and survivors at constant risk.”the center said, saying the main highway to the area had been blocked by the landslide.

However, the exact number of those buried is difficult to ascertain due to the remoteness of the location and the difficulty of obtaining an accurate estimate of the population.

The landslide occurred on Friday in the Enga mountainous region of northern Papua New Guinea, about 600 km northwest of the capital Port Moresby. A hillside village was almost wiped off the map when part of Mount Mungalo collapsed, drowning dozens of houses as residents slept.

At first 100 people were feared dead, but the tragic toll appears to be much higher, with UN officials speaking of around 670 dead.

“I have 18 members of my family buried under the debris and dirt I’m standing on, and many more family members in the village that I can’t count,” resident Evit Kampu told Reuters. “But I can’t retrieve the bodies, so I stand here helpless.”

After 72 hours and after the landslide, residents still use sticks, sticks and their bare hands to move the debris and reach their relatives.

Heavy equipment and aid were delayed in arriving due to the remote location, while tribal warfare in the surrounding area forced aid workers to travel under military escort and return to the provincial capital, some 60 km away, at night.

The first excavator only arrived at the site late Sunday, according to a UN official.

Many people are not even sure where their loved ones were when the landslide occurred because it is common for residents to stay at the homes of friends and relatives, according to Matthew Hewitt Tapus, a Port Moresby-based pastor whose home village is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the disaster zone.

But even when rescue teams were able to reach the site, rain, unstable ground and running water made it extremely dangerous for residents and rescue teams to clear the debris, according to Serhan Aktoprak, head of the migration agency’s mission. of the UN.

There is still a risk that soil and debris will move again. More than 250 homes have been abandoned as officials ask people to evacuate, he said. More than 1,250 people have been displaced.