The death toll from landslides in the Gofa zone of southern Ethiopia has reached 257, according to the United Nations on Thursday, and the number could potentially increase to 500.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated in its latest report, based on information from local authorities, that the death toll is expected to reach up to 500 people.

On Sunday and Monday, heavy rain caused a landslide in the village of Kencho Shacha Gozdi, located high in the mountains of the Gofa zone. The search for missing persons has now entered its fourth day.

OCHA reported that more than 15,000 people need to be evacuated due to the risk of further landslides. This includes at least 1,320 children under the age of 5 and 5,293 pregnant women or new mothers. The government is finalizing an evacuation plan for those affected.

Aid has begun arriving in the isolated area, including four trucks of life-saving supplies from the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, which came on July 23.

At least 125 people have been displaced and are currently sheltering with host communities, while 12 individuals who sustained injuries have been taken to Sawla Hospital for treatment, OCHA said.

A BBC reporter on the ground, Kalkidan Yibeltal, described how men are still digging through mounds of mud with their bare hands, spades, and pickaxes in an effort to find the missing. “When I arrived in Gofa, in the south-west of Ethiopia, late on Wednesday, between 100 and 200 mostly young men were still digging as relatives sat nearby, hoping for the best. The diggers had no earth-moving equipment—nothing has been flown in so far, and it is impossible to bring it in as there is no road leading to the village,” he wrote.