Mudslides smash villages in Peru; at least 12 confirmed dead
SECOCHA, Peru (AP) — Residents of five small gold-mining villages in southern Peru’s Arequipa region struggled Tuesday to salvage belongings after landslides caused by strong rains killed at least 12 people and dragged mud, water and rocks that turned precarious homes and other buildings into rubble.
In the Mariano Nicolás Valcárcel municipality, on the edges of a depleted mining extraction area in Camaná province, people desperately searched for anything they could salvage amid the mud.
One of them was Mauro Noa, a community leader in the Posco Miski village who has been trying to reach local leaders to obtain first aid and food to help more than 1,000 of his neighbors who have been stuck on the side of a mountain since Sunday and are unable to leave due to the accumulation of mud and rocks.
“They're hungry and thirsty,” Noa said. “Nobody thinks about them.”
Noa said this is the first time in 18 years he has seen a landslide of this magnitude and neighbors have compiled a list of 14 Posco Miski residents whose whereabouts are unknown. “The neighbors who couldn’t leave their houses were taken by the wave of mud,” Noa said. “Children have been left traumatized by the rain and the landslide.”
Law enforcement has sent 15 rescue workers to the area and they were expected to arrive in Secocha late in the afternoon because the road has blocked by mud, police officer Giancarlo Vizcarra said.
Vizcarra said that after they arrive in Secocha the rescue workers will try to get to the most remote villages to search for bodies that may be buried under the mud with the help of two dogs that have been trained to search for people after earthquakes.
A local Civil Defense official said Monday that at least 36 people had died in the landslides, but on Tuesday a prosecutor told The...