Reports of Philippines School Rescue Denied

US marines today played down reports that around 50 people had been rescued from a school in the central Philippines three days after the building was buried in a mudslide.

Earlier, an interior ministry official had told the US ABS-CBN news channel that marines had pulled the survivors from under rubble at the school, in the village of Guinsaugon, which was submerged during the landslide on Friday.

However, after speaking to the head of the rescue team, US Marine Capt Burrell Parmer said: "They have yet to receive any word on any type of survivors.

"I asked for specifics, and I asked had they received or found any type of survivors ... the answer was no."

The denial followed reports that detection devices had picked up sounds at the primary school, although it was unclear whether they had been made by survivors or by the movement of the mud and rubble covering the school and believed to be up to 35 meters deep.

The search for survivors has focused on the school because of unconfirmed reports that some of around 200 children and seven staff believed to have been there may have sent text messages to relatives soon after the disaster.

After the sounds were detected, US Marine Lt Richard Neikirk said: "We know there’s something down there. The further down we went, the signals grew stronger."

There was no visible sign of the school building as rescuers continued to dig at the site, close to the mountain that collapsed on Friday.

Philippine officials originally feared that 1,800 people - almost the entire population of the village - had been killed in the disaster, but a government official today said 76 people were confirmed dead and 928 were missing.

However, national disaster officials in Manila said the number of missing stood at 1,350. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.