Red Cross appeals for aid after Philippines landslide

A rain-soaked mountainside disintegrated in an unstoppable wall of mud today, burying hundreds of houses and a school in the eastern Philippines. Red Cross officials estimated 200 people were dead and 1,500 others missing.

The farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island, 420 miles south-east of Manila, was virtually wiped out, with only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to show that the community of some 2,500 people ever existed.

Two other villages also were affected, and about 3,000 evacuees were at a municipal hall.

“We did not find injured people,” said Ricky Estela, a crewman on a helicopter that flew a politician to the scene. “Most of them are dead and beneath the mud.”

Education officials said 200 students, six teachers and the principal were believed to have been in the school.

Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, made an international appeal for aid.