Death toll in New Caledonia landslides rises to five
A fifth person has been confirmed dead after torrential rain triggered landslides on the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, while three others were still missing, officials said.
Rain has been battering the remote islands in the South Pacific since the weekend, sparking two mudslides in the Houailou area, around 235 kilometres (150 miles) northwest of the capital Noumea, early yesterday.
A man's body was recovered in mountainous Gouareu, one of two remote communities hardest hit by the disaster, where an eight-year-old girl and 60-year-old woman were confirmed dead.
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A seven-year-old child and a woman in her 30s were also found dead in a nearby area.
Rescuers, including an army medical team and 30 soldiers, were deployed to search for those still missing.
Some 400 millimetres (nearly 16 inches) of rain fell in the mountainous region in 12 hours before the landslides struck.
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The island's road network has been severely damaged, but electricity supplies initially cut off had been restored to around half of Houailou, local officials said.
"We've never seen anything like it. It's the worst natural disaster to hit New Caledonia," the mayor of Houailou, Pascal Sawa, told AFP.
"A huge amount of rock fell down the mountain," he said, blaming old nickel mines and forest fires for loosening up the ground and contributing to the disaster.