ILIGAN CITY, Philippines — Five children were killed by a landslide in a village here caused by intermittent rains that started Friday and continued over the weekend, authority said.

Continuous heavy down pour loosened the soil in parts of Purok 2, Sitio Sawsaw, Barangay Mandulog that caused the landslide past 5 a.m. Sunday and killed the 5 children, the youngest of whom aged 7 months and the eldest 8 years old.

Iligan  police spokesman Major Zandrex Pamolong said rescuers used a backhoe to get to the buried house and managed to save the  parents Shiela Mae Baroro, 26 and construction worker Jissie Barulan, 29, but did not reach the children in time.

Pamolong identified the children as CJ Barulan, 8; Kent, 6; Xian, 4; Trishamae, 3; and Shemabel, seven months old.

He confirmed  the rescuers recovered the bodies of the victims  and rushed them to the Iligan Sanitarium Hospital and Gregorio T. Lluch Memorial Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

Police Staff Sergeant Dionirel Cutanda said that when they arrived at the scene at around 6 a.m., they found the semi-concrete house of Barulan beside a hill buried under tons of sludge and debris.

“We used everything we can find to dig into the mud but only the parents were able to survive. The children did not,” Cutanda added .

MASIDING NOOR YAHYA