The total number of victims in Arequipa, in the south of the country, would be 12,000 people.
MO12345lemonde with AP and AFP
Several murderous landslides have touched southern Peru, in the area of Arequipa, after the fall of torrential rains. Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defense official of the Nicolas Valccel district, in Camana’s province, told local RPP radio on Monday, February 6, that 36 bodies had been found in several villages.
Among the dead are five people who were driving in a van which was pushed into a river by a tide. The first shifts of mud and rocks occurred Sunday after the bad weather.
A first assessment, communicated by the National Civil Defense Institute in Arequipa, reported fifteen dead, twenty injured and two missing.
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 regional governor, Rohel Sanchez, on local television Canal N. Mining activity is important in the hills surrounding These villages.
“We probably have people [and workers] there who could not go out and who were carried away by the mudslides,” added Mr. Sanchez.
The total number of victims in Arequipa is currently around 12,000 people, according to the same source. Civil defense officials said that around 630 houses were damaged after landslides, which also touched bridges, irrigation canals and roads.
The authorities of Arequipa have asked the Central Government of Lima to declare the state of emergency for natural disaster in the region. Constant rains are frequent in February in Peru, often causing deadly landslides.