Children in shock as aid reaches Papua New Guinea landslide site

Supplies of food and medicine were beginning to arrive at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea Wednesday, with aid workers discovering children rendered mute by the shock of the disaster.

Papua New Guinea's government estimates that 2,000 people may be buried underneath a massive landslide that struck a thriving highland settlement in Enga province in the early hours of May 24.

After days of frantic digging with makeshift tools, only six bodies have been pulled so far from the mountain of churned-up earth.

But with rescue teams abandoning hope of finding survivors under the metres of mud and rubble, the community has started to count the emotional and physical cost.

Mourning locals have started carrying the dead away in immense "haus krai" funeral processions, collective outpourings of love and grief that can last for weeks.

Images showed a group of men carrying a wooden casket down the forested valley on their shoulders, as scores of mourners trailed behind them, wailing with despair.

Many children are also thought to have been caught up in the tragedy.

"What we are hearing is that, because of what they saw and experienced, many of the children have stopped talking," Justine McMahon from CARE Papua New Guinea told AFP.

Niels Kraaier from UNICEF Papua New Guinea said the landslide had orphaned nine children.

UNICEF said it had started distributing hygiene kits of buckets, jerrycans and soap, while World Vision said food, shelter, blankets and mosquito nets remained immediate needs.

Full-scale rescue and relief efforts have been severely hampered by the site's remote location, nearby tribal violence and landslide damage that has severed major road links.

 ...