Landslide Kills 11, Leaves 10 Missing In Northern Peru

[News_Editor]

Landslide kills 11, leaves 10 missing in northern Peru < br />

2012-10-18 20:18:11 GMT+7 (ICT)

EL PORVENIR, PERU (BNO NEWS) -- Heavy rainfall Wednesday triggered a large landslide in a jungle village in northern Peru, killing at least eleven people and leaving several others missing, local authorities said on Thursday. A number of children are believed to be among the victims.

The incident occurred early Wednesday morning when torrential rain caused a landslide in the village of El Porvenir, located in the San Martin Region in the upper part of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. The landslide sent a large mass of trees and rock debris crashing into homes.

Officials at Peru's National Civil Defense Institute (INDECI) confirmed rescue workers have so far pulled eleven bodies from the debris while ten others remain missing. Three other people who were injured were transported to the Central Hospital in Tarapoto, the region's largest city.

It was not immediately clear how many houses were buried by the landslide, but 36 people were said to have lost their home. Wednesday's landslide also destroyed a bridge and roughly 600 meters (1,968 feet) of water pipelines in the village, which is made up of around 200 families, many of them coffee farmers.

The San Martin regional government has deployed humanitarian aid to the scene to help those displaced, and emergency teams are were continuing their search-and-rescue operations on early Thursday morning.

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