At least 34 dead and scores missing after Myanmar landslide

Sixteen homes hit by a deluge of mud following heavy rain

A landslide caused by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 22 people and injured dozens more in eastern Myanmar, as floods forced tens of thousands across the country to flee their homes. AFP

A lorry destroyed in the landslide in Paung township, Mon state. AFP

Rescue workers search for landslide victims in Paung township, Mon state. About 100 people were missing after a torrent mud of mud swamped the area. AFP

Earthmoving equipment is used to clear an area affected by a landslide in Paung township, Mon state. AFP

Rescue workers remove parts of a building that was destroyed in the landslide. AFP

Residents salvage items from a building destroyed in the landslide. AFP

Rescue workers gesture as they search for landslide survivors. AFP

Residents sort through belongings salvaged from a building damaged in the landslide. AFP

Rescue workers carry the body of a landslide victim. AFP

People inspect the damage caused by the landslide. AFP

The death toll from a landslide triggered by monsoon rains in eastern Myanmar rose to at least 34 on Saturday as emergency workers continued a desperate search through thick mud for scores more feared missing.

Myanmar's monsoon season brings an annual torrent of heavy downpours, which often force tens of thousands of people to leave flooded homes and trigger deadly landslides across its more hilly regions.

A huge brown gash on the hillside marked where the deluge of mud flooded onto Ye Pyar Kone village in Mon state on Friday, wiping out 16 homes.

Search and rescue teams worked through the night with excavators and their bare hands trying to find survivors and recover bodies from the deep sludge.

"We found 34 dead, and the search for dead bodies is still ongoing," local administrator Myo Min Tun told AFP.

So far, 47 people have been injured while officials believe that more than 80 people could still be missing.

Aerial pictures showed broken rooftops and other debris from the houses strewn next to trucks knocked over by the force of the mudslide.

The village's hillside temple was covered, with only the pagoda's golden spire peeking out through the mud.

Htay Htay Win, 32, said that two of her daughters and five other relatives had still not been found.

She only survived because she had left her home minutes earlier to go look at the flooding nearby.

"I heard a huge noise and turned round to see my home being hit by the mud," she said.

Rescue workers spent Saturday morning loading bodies wrapped in plastic onto the back of flatbed trucks as worried villagers looked on.

Standing beside the ruins of her house, 35-year-old Nyo Nyo Win said, “This was my home. Now, everything is gone. We have nothing left.”

Nine members of her family were killed, including her son and father, she told Reuters.

First, lamp posts on the road started to fall and then villagers ran towards their homes for fear of being electrocuted, she said.

“All the people who made it to their homes were buried, including my father and eight children who were at home. It happened so fast, just in seconds.”

Tin Htay, 30, said he and his family managed to escape when the landslide hit his house and he tried to rescue others trapped by the mud.

"I dragged a woman and two children from a car but I could not reach two other people, so I had to leave them," he said.

Emergency crews had to unblock the main highway from Yangon to Mawlamyine, buried under nearly two metres of sludge.

Torrential downpours have burst riverbanks across the country while coastal communities have been warned of higher tides.

In the town of Shwegyin in eastern Bago region, residents waded out through waist-deep waters or waited to be rescued by boat after the Sittaung river burst its banks, swallowing entire homes.

Nearly 90,000 people have been displaced by floods in recent weeks, although many have since been able to return home, according to the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Vietnam has also experienced heavy flooding this week with at least eight people killed in the country's central highlands and rescuers using a zipline to carry dozens of others to safety.