Papua New Guinea bridge collapses on landslide aid route

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GENEVA (Reuters) – A bridge has collapsed on the main route for getting aid and equipment to the site of a Papua New Guinea landslide that buried at least 2,000 people, a U.N. agency said on Tuesday, descibing unstable land conditions in areas of the rescue.

“So what has happened is that it (the bridge collapse) has cut off the main highway, which leads to Enga (province),” Itayi Viriri, regional spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration, told a U.N. press briefing in Geneva by video link from Bangkok. He said this was forcing heavy equipment being used to try to rescue people beneath the rubble to take a longer, alternative route.

“The conditions are very, very difficult. In some parts the land is still moving,” he said, adding that rain was still falling in the area of the accident.