GUINSAUGON (Philippines), Feb 21: Rescuers on Tuesday dug down towards a buried school during their search for some 1,400 people entombed by a Philippine landslide, but said it was time to face the truth that the missing must now be dead.

“It is good to hope but relatives of those missing should by now already know the reality,” said Hector Reyes, leader of the Philippine Canine Search and Rescue Team.

A Malaysian team operating remote sensing probes had reported sounds on Monday, but said it was unclear whether they were made by humans. They and a Taiwanese team with similar equipment heard nothing on Tuesday.

“It is a fact that in this type of disaster people trapped may already be dead,” said Malaysian team leader Yaacob Yusuf. “It is not good to keep (relatives) hoping.”

Four days after a mountainside toppled onto the verdant farming village of Guinsaugon, on Leyte island, and wiped it off the map, an international rescue effort was getting into top gear — despite muddy terrain made even more treacherous by rain and the slim hopes of survivors.

“The rain just kept pounding last night. The mud was real difficult to navigate and walk on,” said US Marine Bowie Trent.

“Our main obstacle now is the terrain. It changed overnight.”

Philippine troops and US Marines, after waiting for directives from the probe teams, resumed digging above the school where 240 children and staff are feared buried.

But there was no estimate of when they would unearth the building even though rescuers believe they have found the area where it is buried.

Friday’s landslide, triggered by two weeks of abnormally heavy rain, is thought to have torn the school from its foundations and pushed it to a new location.

With aid and specialist equipment and trucks pouring in from around the world, the biggest obstacle was the weather.

Rain has reshaped the sea of metres-deep mud covering nine square kilometres where the village once stood. Malaysian, American and Filipino rescuers had to use a big log to bridge a creek that sprang up overnight.

The command centre at Guinsaugon put the latest confirmed death toll at 85, with 1,367 missing. Some 400-500 people who were out of the village when disaster struck survived. Only about 20 were pulled alive from the landslide.—AFP