UP to 60 people are feared killed in a massive landslide which hit villages near the ExxonMobil-led LNG project in Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands.
The landslide struck at 7am (AEDT) yesterday near the Nogoli base for the liquefied natural gas plant site, northwest of Port Moresby.
ExxonMobil says all its staff have been accounted for.
The director of PNG's National Disaster Centre, Martin Mosi, says there are settlements close to the otherwise remote site near Mendi, in the centre of the country, and he fears lives have been lost.
"At this time it is hard to say," he said.
"Most likely lives have been lost, we cannot tell how many.
"There were villages - settlements - where the landslide covered."
He said, however, that media reports of deaths between 40 and 60 were not surprising.
"The land is covered and quite extensively," he said.
"Those little hamlets ... they may not have escaped."
Three agents from the Disaster Centre are heading to Mendi today, where they will be flown by helicopter to join police at the site.
PNG media are reporting 40 bodies have been recovered and another 20 people are still missing, with the damage spreading for two kilometres, leaving roads to nearby villages cut off.
One local MP, Francis Potape, told Radio Australia's Tok Pisin (pidgin) service the landslide completely covered two villages while people slept.
"There are people buried underneath and a number of them are, from what I have heard, children," the Port Moresby based The National reported Mr Potape as saying.
The Post Courier reports that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill will travel to Tari on Wednesday to visit the site.
ExxonMobil spokeswoman Rebecca Arnold said today the company is in close contact with authorities to help deal with the landslide, which is not expected to hinder the project's completion in 2014.
The $16 billion LNG project is due to begin production in 2014 and will see PNG's natural gas sold across Asia for the next 30 years - a plan projected to double PNG's gross domestic product.
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