Philippines landslide victims 'texted for help' while buried underneath rubble

Authorities limit number of rescuers, fearing heavy rain could cause new slides

Rescuers search for survivors at the landslide site on the popular tourist island of Cebu (Getty)

At least 22 people have been killed and dozens are missing after a landslide engulfed two villages in the central Philippines, with some trapped people managing to send text messages from beneath the rubble.

Survivors heard a thunderous roar when the mountainside buried dozens of homes in two villages in Naga on Thursday morning.

The disaster came after Typhoon Mangkhut hit the north of the Philippines, intensifying seasonal monsoon rains and increasing the risk of landslides.

Although some people trapped in the sludge managed to send text messages, the messages stopped within a few hours.

One resident, Nimrod Parba, told the Associated Press that one of his trapped relatives called for help about three hours after the landslide hit and entombed 13 members of his family.

“They are still under the rubble, they are still there. They are covered in shallow earth, we need a backhoe.”

A man embracing a child in a house was dug out by rescuers using a digger on Thursday night.

Distraught relatives have begged for more diggers to be brought to the mound of earth and debris, where they hoped loved ones could be pulled out alive.

Authorities have limited the number of rescuers and other people inside the stricken villages, fearing heavy rain on the loose and soaked ground could cause new slides.

Rescuers continue their search for missing miners in a landslide caused by Typhoon Mangkhut at a small-scale mining camp in Itogon (Reuters) (REUTERS)

Philippine troops and police have forcibly evacuated residents from five villages vulnerable to landslides.

Some villages left on their own, but the bulk of more than 1,200 people were forced to move by authorities on Thursday night.

The landslide occurred as parts of the far northern Philippines dealt with damage from Typhoon Mangkhut.

At least 95 people were killed and more than 50 are missing, many in the gold-mining town of Igoton, where landslides buried houses and a chapel where people had gathered to hide from the storm.