One hurt, hundreds flee in Mindanao landslides

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Xinhua) - At least one person got injured and hundreds fled as a low pressure area (LPA) hovering over southern Philippines triggered landslides and flooding there, local officials said today.

Several houses were also destroyed as parts of a gold-rich mining village in Monkayo, a town in Southern Philippine province of Compostela Valley, were hit by two landslide incidents today, Chief Inspector Jed Clamor, regional police spokesperson for Southern Mindanao, said.

At around 2 a.m. today, a five-year-old boy sustained injuries in a landslide occurred in the mining community of Mt. Diwata, Monkayo. Another landslide hit the area around 9 a.m., destroying a house but causing no further injuries, Clamor said.

Quoting local police officials, Clamor said 247 families were also preemptively evacuated in five municipalities in Compostela Valley as moderate to heavy rains spawned by a LPA pelted the province and many parts of Mindanao since Thursday night.

Evacuations were also reported in towns in other areas of the region, he added.

The Philippine Department of Transportation and Communication today noon announced at least 37 domestic flights were canceled due to the bad weather, even as the LPA was moving sluggishly some 680 km from Mindanao's General Santos City, bringing rains while the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration still monitoring if the bad weather system could develop into a tropical cyclone.