Philippines: Dozens missing after deadly landfill collapse

Rescue workers on Friday were searching for dozens of people who were buried after a mountain of garbage collapsed at a dump site in the central Philippines.

At least one person was killed as a result of the avalanche of trash and debris, which trapped nearly 50 sanitation workers at the landfill in Binaliw in Cebu City on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

"There are signs of life," Cebu Mayor Nestor Archival told reporters. He said 34 people were still missing, while 13 people who were rescued overnight were being treated in hospital.

It is unclear if those who were trapped are all sanitation workers or if local residents were also buried.

Archival added that 500 rescue workers would join the hundreds already on site for the search efforts, which are expected to continue until Sunday.

Anxious relatives looked on as excavators were used to remove piles of debris. The risk of explosion from methane gas is hindering the search, limiting the type of equipment available to the rescuers, Archival warned.

Photos from the scene show what appear to be multiple structures that have been flattened by the avalanche of trash.

Jason Morata, a city assistant public information officer, told the AFP news agency that the buildings had been used by the private company that operates the dump site for "company offices, HR, admin, maintenance staff."

He said the mound of garbage "must be four storys high".

Regional police director Brig. Gen. Roderick Maranan said one of the buildings that was hit by the cascading wall of garbage was a sorting warehouse to separate recyclable waste.

He added that it is unclear if nearby houses were also affected.

It is unclear what led to the mountain of garbage collapsing. "It wasn't raining at all," said Marge Parcotello, a staff member at the police department in Consolacion, a town adjacent to the dump site.

Morata said officials were looking at several factors, but he pointed out that Cebu was hit by two typhoons in the second half of last year, as well as an earthquake.

Open landfills have been a health and safety concern for years in the Philippines, particularly in areas that are near poorer communities.

Residents of these communities often scavenge for leftover food and other items in the piles of trash.

The incident bears similarities to the July 2000 collapse of a huge heap of garbage at a landfill in a slum in metropolitan Manila that was home to thousands of people, many of them unregistered squatters.

More than 210 people were killed, according to officials. Other unofficial accounts said as many as 1,000 people died.

That incident — the worst of its kind in the Philippines — led to a law requiring illegal dumpsites to be shut down and improvements to waste management.