Asia-Pacific

12 killed in fresh landslide in southeast Mexico

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-30 12:48

Soldiers try to remove debris washed up underneath a bridge in Oaxaca, Sept 29, 2010. About a dozen people are missing in Oaxaca following a landslide on Tuesday that buried homes. A hill collapsed in torrential rain in Chiapas in southern Mexico on Wednesday and killed 12 people in the latest deadly mudslide linked to tropical storms, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon said. [Photo/Agencies]

MEXICO CITY - At least 12 people were killed, 16 injured and four missing on Wednesday in a landslide in Amatan town of Chiapas state, southeast Mexico.

Quoting Chiapas governor Juan Sabines, Mexican President Felipe Calderon reported in his Twitter account that authorities had already begun sending aid to the area.

Chiapas' Civil Protection Direction said the landslide occurred early Wednesday morning in a place between Reforma and Planada communities in the mountain range of Chiapas.

Some houses were damaged by the landslide. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital.

Earlier Wednesday, rescue efforts resumed for 11 people who went missing after a Tuesday landslide in a town in Mexico's rain-soaked southeastern state of Oaxaca.

Staff of the Mexican Red Cross said Wednesday they had not found any bodies in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, but estimated there could be four deaths and 11 missing.

Almost the entire population of 9,000 in the town had evacuated, except a few who refused to leave.

"We have not left because of our children. I have two children, one of two years old and the other of three months," said Raquel Garcia, a local resident.

Nicomedes Hernandez, a 10-year-old survivor of the landslide in Oaxaca state, told Xinhua that he and his brother left their house just before it was buried by the landslide.

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Hernandez said that some people in a car called them and told them to leave the house.

Herandez said that they awoke early Tuesday morning as the land moved and mud and rocks were falling from the hills.

"The house began to be filled with mud in the first floor. The mud was filling the rooms quickly so we fled to the third floor," the child said still scared.

Hernandez said that the third floor was also quickly engulfed by mud so he and his brother jumped out of a window in order to save their lives.

Hernandez said that part of his family, including uncles, aunts and cousins were trapped in a house next to his, but he said he believed  rescuers would save them soon.