The death toll from a landslide at a gold-rush site in the southern Philippines rose to 26 Tuesday, as rescuers struggled to look for 19 others still missing, police said.
Rescuers have also saved 16 people who were buried under the rubble hours after the landslide in the town of Pantukan in Compostela Valley on Monday, a regional police chief said.
Additional police rescue units were "negotiating the route towards the disaster area," Senior Superintendent Ronald Dela Rosa said.
The victims were resting inside three bunkhouses inside one of the mine tunnels Monday, when heavy rains apparently softened the soil and triggered the landslide, Dela Rosa said, quoting survivors.
Unregulated small-scale mining operations are common in Compostela, and authorities have had to cope with several deadly landslides in recent years.
In December, three people were killed when a mine tunnel collapsed in the village of Ngan, also in Compostela, while in September, 20 people were killed when a landslide buried 28 houses at a mining village.
Shortly after the accidents last year, the provincial government in Compostela warned gold prospectors to leave the place after studies showed extensive soil saturation.
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