Massive landslide have buried many people in the southern highlands of PNG, northwest of Port Moresby

[bill]

Massive landslide have buried many people in the southern highlands...

 

DOZENS of people are feared to have been buried in a massive landslide in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

The landslide struck at 7am AEDT yesterday near the Nogoli base for a ExxonMobil-ledliquefied natural gas plant site, northwest of Port Moresby.

One local said three villages had been covered while another report said only a handful of homes were lost.

Radio Australia reported dozens of people were feared buried, quoting a Tari resident as saying about 40 people were missing.

The landslide was said to stretch about one kilometre and was 300 metres wide, and had cut a main road in the area.

All Australians reported in the area have been accounted for, Radio Australia reported. ExxonMobil said its personnel were all safe.

"We have been in contact with the Natural Disaster and Response Office," ExxonMobil spokeswoman Rebecca Arnold said

 

"All our personnel are accounted for.

"We have closed down work in the surrounding area."

Ms Arnold said the landslide is not expected to hinder the project's completion in 2014.

The $16 billion LNG project is due to begin production in 2014 and will see PNG's natural gas sold across Asia for the next 30 years - a plan projected to double PNG's gross domestic product.

[Nancy Lieder]

This area is riddles with fault lines and tiny platelets between the Pacific, the Indi-Australian, the Sunda, and the Philippine Plates!