A new landslide has killed four people in the southern Philippines, and two bodies have been found drowned near a river, police said on Thursday, bringing the death toll from deadly rains in recent days to at least 39. .
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Authorities are continuing their search for at least 20 people after heavy rainfall over the Christmas weekend caused flooding and landslides in parts of the central and southern Philippines.
Police said four people were fishing on a waterway in Davao Oriental province on the southern island of Mindanao on Wednesday when a landslide buried them.
The lifeless body of a 62-year-old man was found very quickly, and two more bodies were found on Thursday, Mati city police chief Ernesto Gregore told AFP.
“There was a heavy downpour in the mountains. They were fishing in a river when a landslide happened,” he said.
Across the country, hundreds of homes have been destroyed and more than 7,000 hectares of crops devastated by the rains, forcing tens of thousands of people to seek refuge in evacuation centres, the national management agency reported. disasters.
Most of those who died were in Misamis Occidental province on the island of Mindanao, where 16 people died of drowning or in rain-triggered landslides.
The Philippines is among the countries most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. The weather is getting more powerful as the planet heats up, researchers have warned.
