No sign of survivors in Philippines

Rescue workers dug grimly Tuesday for a mud-swamped elementary school, but in a different spot from where they excitedly detected underground sounds a day earlier that they hoped were signs of life.

Photo: No sign of survivors in Philippines

The buzz that fed a sense of urgency Monday evening was gone. Ground-penetrating radar, capable of mapping structures up to 17 meters (50 feet) deep, found nothing.

Hopes of a miracle had focused on the school amid unconfirmed reports that survivors there sent cell phone text messages to relatives shortly after a mountainside collapsed Friday in a wall of mud and boulders that swamped the farming village of Guinsaugon.

But with the only survivors pulled out hours later, the prospects of finding life under mud believed to be up to 35 meters (more than 100 feet) deep were fading by the hour, reports the AP.