Police say incident took place around 6 am in an area between Melthum and Hlimen. District has also been cut off from rest of country due to landslide on National Highway 6.
More than 72 hours after the landslide residents are still using spades, sticks and their bare hands to try and shift the debris and reach any survivors.
The agency based its death toll estimates on information provided by officials at Yambali Village in Enga province, who say more than 150 houses were buried in Friday’s landslide.
More than 50 homes, many with people still asleep inside, were buried when the landslide hit Kaokalam village, which is in Enga province, about 600km north of capital Port Moresby.
The landslide hit two villages in southwestern city of Zhaotong. Nearly 1,000 rescue workers have been dispatched, along with 200 rescue vehicles, state media reported.
The men are currently caught in a 400-metre buffer zone, about 60-70 metres of rocky debris away from rescuers, who say the main challenge now is the loose gravel which keeps falling.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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