Hopes wane for survivors in Philippine tragedy

Hopes of finding survivors days after the collapse of a massive mountain of trash in the central Philippines were fading, officials said on Sunday, as rescue workers dug through tonnes of rubble.

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The recovery of a body on Sunday brought the confirmed death toll to seven, with at least 99 people still missing as the crucial 72-hour window since the landslide in Cebu City came to an end.

About 50 sanitation workers were buried on Thursday when the mountain of garbage toppled onto them from an estimated height of 20 storeys at the Binaliw Landfill, a privately operated facility that handles refuse for the city of nearly one million. “Yesterday, we detected two signs of life through our specialised radar. There were still heartbeats 30 meters below the debris, but right now, there are no reports of that anymore,” local fire officer Wendell Villanueva told AFP on Sunday.