Landslide kills six people in southern Philippines

MANILA (Reuters) - Landslides triggered by heavy rain buried a cluster of makeshift houses near a mining town on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Monday, killing six people, disaster officials said.

Carmelito Lupo, head of the civil defense office in the Mindanao region, said rescue teams, backed by some miners, were searching for three more people believed to have been buried alive in the landslide near Maco town in the Compostela Valley. "We've pulled out six bodies from the mudslide, including a toddler," Lupo told reporters as soldiers, police officers and miners helped in the rescue efforts.

"It has been raining for several days here and it could have loosened the soil."

Lupo said several people escaped with minor injuries and one was brought to a nearby hospital after he was pulled out from under tonnes of earth.

Last month, five people were killed, including a pregnant woman, in a similar mudslide in the valley, a famous goldrush area in the southern Philippines.

The lure of gold has attracted tens of thousands of small-scale miners to the hillsides of the Compostela Valley, a region on Mindanao famous for gold panning, making their settlements susceptible to landslides.

Across the country, communities are at risk from landslides during the Philippine rainy season, which usually starts in May and lasts until September.

Last year, at least 1,850 were killed or declared missing and tens of thousands were left homeless after a slew of typhoons crashed into the centre of the country.