LIMA: Authorities said on Monday that at least 36 people were killed when mud, water, and rocks were swept into several villages in southern Peru by landslides brought on by ongoing rains. According to Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defense official in the Mariano Nicolas Valcarcel municipality in the province of Camana, 36 bodies had been found in a remote area called Miski, according to local radio RPP.
Five people who were riding in a van that was pushed into a river by a surge of mud were among the dead.
Officials in the area called for the deployment of heavy machinery to clear the debris that was obstructing a crucial road for three kilometers (nearly two miles).
After the landslides, which also damaged roads, irrigation canals, and bridges, officials with the civil defense agency estimated that 630 homes were no longer inhabitable.
Peru experiences a lot of constant rain in February, which frequently results in deadly landslides.