Several deadly landslides have affected southern Peru, in the Arequipa region, after torrential rains fell. Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defense official in Nicolas Valcarcel district, Camana province, told local radio RPP on Monday (February 6th) that 36 bodies had been found in several villages.
Among the dead are five people who were riding in a van that was pushed into a river by a tide of mud. The first mud and rock slides occurred on Sunday after bad weather.
A first assessment, communicated by the National Institute of Civil Defense in Arequipa, reported fifteen dead, twenty wounded and two missing.
Declaration of state of emergency requested by local authorities
Four localities in the district and the neighboring region of Rio Grande were particularly affected. “The situation in these four villages is very unfavorable (…) both in Rio Grande and Nicolas Valcarcel”said the regional governor, Rohel Sanchez, on the local television Canal N. The mining activity is important in the hills surrounding these villages.
“We probably have people [et des ouvriers] there who couldn’t get out and who were swept away by the mudslides”added Mr. Sanchez.
The total number of victims in Arequipa is currently some 12,000 people, according to the same source. Civil defense officials said about 630 homes were damaged after the landslides, which also hit bridges, irrigation canals and roads.
Authorities in Arequipa have asked the central government in Lima to declare a state of emergency for natural disasters in the region. Constant rains are common in February in Peru, often causing deadly landslides.