Landslides, floods kill 5 children in Philippines

[January 03, 2011]  MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Landslides and floods after days of heavy rain in the Philippines killed five children and an adult, officials said Monday. Three girls are missing.

The dead included a 1-year-old baby and his 5-year-old sister who were buried by a landslide as they slept in the central Philippines' St. Bernard township.

More than 1,300 townspeople have sought shelter in a gymnasium and schools after the landslide hit Sunday, Mayor Rico Rentuza said. The town in Southern Leyte province had one of the Philippines' worst disasters in 2006 when a mudslide buried the entire village of Guinsaugon, with more than 1,000 people.

The body of a 3-year-old boy, a neighbor of the siblings, was found Monday, said Angel Gaviola, the regional civil defense director. Rescuers pulled a 7-year-old survivor from the debris, but his condition was unknown Monday evening.

A 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy drowned in two other flooded towns of Southern Leyte, Gaviola said.

In the southern Philippines, a 60-year-old woman was killed in a landslide and three missing girls were last seen playing near a swollen river, said Senior Supt. Aaron Aquino, police chief of Compostela Valley province. The girls are between 6 and 8 years old.

The woman's body was retrieved Monday after her house in the gold-mining area of Mount Diwalwal was buried Sunday night, Aquino said.

[Associated Press]

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