At least 15 people have been confirmed dead after a massive landslide that struck southern Peru. Dozens of homes were reportedly swallowed up by dirt and mud following heavy rainfall in the country last weekend.
According to officials, 20 people were injured after the landslide struck on Sunday near the riverside town of Secocha, about 200km north-west of the city of Arequipia, while two people remain missing.
Peru’s national emergency services, also said at least 10 homes were destroyed, while 310 homes have been reported damaged so far. William Alvarado, a district mayor in one of the hardest-hit areas, said over 1,000 families had been affected, almost all of them severely.
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“We can say that the houses of 90% of the affected families were completely destroyed,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Dina Boluarte flew over the disaster zone on Tuesday morning to survey the damages and offered her condolences to the victims, while commending the government’s quick reaction to the disaster and noted that past landslide cleanup efforts have too often suffered major delays.
“We will now show a big difference on that so that in the shortest amount of time we can recover as fast as possible,” she said.
The deadly landslide follows two months of intense political upheaval in the country marked by often violent anti-government protests aimed at Boluarte’s caretaker government.
The unrest is largely centred in nearby areas in Peru’s Andean south and was triggered by the early December ouster of former President Pedro Castillo.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
