Landslide at Afaahiti in Te Honu district. Photo: Facebook / Polynésie la 1ère
Extensive search is underway in French Polynesia's main island of Tahiti, following a landslide that struck several houses in the small town of Afaahiti-Taravao (Southeast of the main island of Tahiti), leaving at least nine people missing and believed to be trapped under the rubble, local media report.
A heavy contingent of gendarmes and firemen have been deployed to search the site after the landslide buried at least three houses, local public broadcaster Polynésie La Première reported.
Authorities, including the French High Commission in French Polynesia, in their latest update, say the search and rescue operation could last up to two days, mainly because the site is "not stable" and therefore highly dangerous.
A crisis centre was also set up at the French High Commission.
The priority is to establish the exact location of the currently nine missing persons, on the site of the three houses.
Thirteen houses in the neighbourhood have been evacuated.
The whole area was cordoned off for safety reasons.
The search involves about forty firemen and gendarmes, terrestrial means, underground cameras, radars, drones but also an army helicopter as well as sniffer dogs, French Polynesia's President Moetai Brotherson said in a brief statement on site.
"We have also activated a psychological assistance unit", he said.
Meanwhile, French Polynesia's main hospital, in Papeete (on the same island of Tahiti) has been placed on high alert to receive potential victims of the disaster.
The landslide follows several days of heavy rains in the area.
Residents said the slide occurred at dawn on Thursday (Wednesday Tahiti time) and they were woken up by a "big noise" and later found that a whole side of the mountain had collapsed on three houses.
"These people, our neighbours, surely they're inside, they have to be", one neighbour told local media.
