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Hard hat-wearing rescue workers and backhoes have dug through rubble in search of survivors in the shadow of a mountain of garbage that buried dozens of landfill employees in the central Philippines, killing at least six.

About 50 sanitation workers were buried when refuse toppled on to them on Thursday (local time) from what a city councillor estimated was a height of 20 storeys at the Binaliw Landfill, a privately operated facility in Cebu City.

Rescuers were now facing the danger of further collapse as they navigated the still-shifting wreckage, Cebu rescuer Jo Reyes told AFP on Saturday.

“Operations are ongoing as of the moment. It is continuous. [But] from time to time, the landfill is moving, and that will temporarily stop the operation,” she said.

Cebu City councillor Dave Tumulak, chairman of the city’s disaster council, told AFP another two bodies had been uncovered on Saturday by crews working in 24-hour shifts.

The discovery brings the death toll to six, while 32 people remain missing.

“We found another two bodies, but we cannot retrieve the bodies because of the heavy metal beam that fell on them, so we are trying to cut the metal,” he said.

To assist in the rescue operation, 20 trucks equipped with hydraulic cranes and specialised cutting attachments were being sent to help rescuers forced to crawl to reach areas blocked by debris.

“Our rescuers are struggling because the metal beams are big,” he said. “With [the trucks], the metal can be lifted and our rescuers can navigate the site more efficiently.

“We are just hoping that we can get someone alive ... We are racing against time, that’s why our deployment is 24/7.”

Twelve employees have so far been pulled alive from the garbage and sent to hospital.

‘Praying for miracles’

Numerous families were on site waiting for word on the fate of their relatives, Joel Garganera, another Cebu City council member, said.

“We are hoping against hope here and praying for miracles,” he said.

The city councillor described the height from which the rubbish fell as “alarming”, estimating the top of the pile had stood 20 storeys above the area struck.

“Every now and then, when it rains, there are landslides happening around the city of Cebu ... how much more [dangerous is that] for a landfill or a mountain that is made of garbage?” Garganera said.

“The garbage is like a sponge, they really absorb water. It doesn’t [take] a rocket scientist to say that eventually, the incident will happen.”

Drivers had long complained about the dangers of navigating the steep road to the top, he added.

Photos released by police on Friday showed a massive mound of rubbish atop a hill directly behind buildings that a city information officer had told AFP contained administrative offices.

The facility also included staff housing “where most people who were buried stayed”, Garganera said.

He noted that the disaster was a “double whammy” for the city, as the facility was the “lone service provider” for Cebu and adjacent communities.

The landfill “processes 1000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily”, according to the website of its operator, Prime Integrated Waste Solutions.

Calls and emails to the company have so far gone unreturned.

Rita Cogay, who operates a compactor at the site, told AFP on Friday she had stepped outside to get a drink of water just moments before the building she had been in was crushed.

“I thought a helicopter had crashed. But when I turned, it was the garbage and the building coming down,” the 49-year-old said.

- Agence France-Presse