This image from a Philippines television station shows rescue workers cleaning a victim of the mudslide that buried a town on the island of Leyte early today. The farming village of Guinsaugon was virtually wiped out by the mudslide and rescuers fear many of the town's 1,500 missing inhabitants are dead.

MANILA, Philippines — A rain-soaked mountainside disintegrated into a torrent of mud in the eastern Philippines today, swallowing hundreds of houses and an elementary school in sludge three stories high. At least 23 bodies were recovered, but 1,500 people remained missing.

The farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island, 420 miles southeast of Manila, was virtually wiped out, with only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to show that the community of some 2,500 people ever existed.

"It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled," survivor Dario Libatan told Manila radio DZMM. "I could not see any house standing anymore."

Two other villages also were inundated, and about 3,000 evacuees were at a municipal hall.

"We did not find injured people," said Ricky Estela, a crewman on a helicopter that flew a politician to the scene. "Most of them are dead and beneath the mud."

The mud was so deep — up to 30 feet in some places — and unstable that rescue workers had difficulty approaching the school. Southern Leyte province Gov. Rosette Lerias told the British Broadcasting Corp. the school had 246 students and seven teachers. Only one child and one adult had been recovered.

Lerias said the Philippine army and air force, and the Red Cross, were on the scene, but search-and-rescue efforts were called off at nightfall. She asked for people to dig by hand, saying the mud was too soft for heavy equipment.

"All those who could have come today have come," she told BBC. "We hope to be able to rescue more people."

The U.S. Embassy said an American naval vessel was en route to the disaster area and Philippine disaster officials were being consulted on coordinating chopper deployment. The Red Cross also appealed for U.S. troops, who are in the country for joint military exercises, to send helicopters.

"Help is on the way," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in televised remarks. "It will come from land, sea and air."

Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, issued the casualty estimates and made an international appeal for aid.

There appeared to be little hope for finding many survivors, and only 53 were extricated from the brown morass before dark halted rescue efforts, officials said.

"It was like the whole village was wiped out," said air force spokesman Lt. Col. Restituto Padilla.

Aerial TV footage showed a wide swath of mud amid stretches of rice paddies at the foothills of the now-scarred mountain, where survivors blamed illegal logging for contributing to the disaster.

Volunteers from nearby provinces were quickly being joined by groups of troops being ferried in by helicopter, with more en route by sea.