Taiwan sends rescue team to landslide-hit Philippine village

Taipei_(dpa) _ Taiwan on Sunday sent a search-and-rescue team to the landslide-hit Philippine village to join in the effort to find survivors.
Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang saw the team off at the Chiang Kai-she International Airport. The China Airlines flew the team and its equipments and relief material to Manila free of charge.

The team includes 31 search and rescue experts and three aid workers from the Dharman Drum Buddhist Foundation. They carried with them rescue equipment as well as 250 boxes of instant noodles, 150 cases of bottled water, 200 sleeping bags and 56 tents.

Taiwan has already donated 100,000 dollars to the Philippines, and the Taiwan Red Cross is trying to raise 1.5 million dollars for the landslide-hit village.

Ten days of rain and an earthquake triggered the landslide in the Southern Leuyte Province in eastern Philippines Friday morning, burying the 1,700 villagers under as high as 10 metres of mud.

By Sunday, rescuers have pulled out 62 bodies but some 1,500 villagers remain missing. Fifty-seven survivors were found on Friday but no survivors have been found since Saturday.

Rescuers fear that as time goes by, the chance of finding more survivors in Guinsaugon village in Saint Bernard town, Southern Leyte province, 675 kilometres southeast of Manila, is becoming slim. dpa dc tl