The death toll from a massive  earthquake in Papua New Guinea rose to 10 on Thursday, officials said, as communities in remote areas struggled to recover from widespread damage.

Four days after a 7.6 tremor levelled hundreds of homes, split roads and  caused power outages across the rugged jungle-clad north of the country, the scale of the disaster was still coming into focus.

The national disaster management agency said the death toll now stood at 10, including a 16-year-old girl who was killed by falling rocks in Woku village.

Earlier, three alluvial miners working in the village of Wau died after being buried alive by a landslide. For days, volunteers have run ad-hoc airlifts to rescue the injured.