Landslides kill 36 people in Peru

Rain sweeps mud, water and rocks into several villages

A landslide caused by heavy rain in Arequipa, Peru on Monday. Reuters

Landslides triggered by steady rains swept mud, water and rocks into several villages in southern Peru, killing at least 36 people, authorities said.

Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defence official in the Mariano Nicolas Valcarcel municipality in Camana province, told local radio RPP that 36 bodies had been recovered in a remote sector called Miski.

Among the dead were five people who were travelling in a van that was pushed into a river by a surge of mud.

Local officials appealed for heavy machinery to be sent in to clear debris blocking 3km of an important road.

Civil defence officials said an estimated 630 homes were unusable after the landslides, which also hit bridges, irrigation canals and roads.

Rain is frequent in February in Peru and often causes deadly landslides.