MANILA, Philippines—Retrieval operations for two remaining missing residents -- believed to be a mother and her child -- after a landslide hit the village of Masara in Compostela Valley were suspended Thursday due to heavy rains that authorities feared could trigger a similar disaster.

Major Roland Rodil, commander of the 25th Infantry Battalion, said by phone that the search-and-retrieval teams were working to retrieve what they believed were the bodies of the two missing when it was decided that the operations should be stopped for the day.

The victims were buried alive in the landslide that struck the village in Maco town last Saturday, said Rodil, who also heads the incident command center that oversees retrieval operations and the evacuation operations for the residents.

Around 279 families or 1,216 persons have already been evacuated out of Masara and neighboring village, Mainit.

Another landslide hit the village located at the foothill of a mountain at around 3 a.m. on Sunday, 12 hours after the first landslide hit.

Rodil said 24 people were confirmed killed in the disaster, with 32 others injured.

Rodil said one resident had asked the search-and-retrieval teams to focus on the other side of the river where his wife and child could be buried.

“They (search teams) have more or less pinpointed the location of the man’s house,” Rodil said.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) had recommended that Masara and Mainit be evacuated of its residents as they were no longer suitable for habitation, calling them “high-risk areas for landslides.”

Rodil said the evacuation of the residents, some of whom preferred to stay with relatives and friends in other towns and villages, was still under way, with the provincial and municipal local governments, as well as the Army, providing trucks and every available vehicle to the effort.

Early Thursday afternoon, a fire truck with two firemen on board met with an accident in Barangay Tuburan in Mawab town as it made its way to Barangay Elizalde in Maco to assist in relief operations for the hundreds of evacuees, Rodil added.

One of the men was unconscious and the other was hurt but not seriously, Rodil said.

“It’s fortunate that the firetruck didn’t fall into the ravine,” Rodil said. The truck had fallen on its side on the zigzag road.