58 villagers feared dead after Mexico landslide

Fifty-eight people are missing, feared dead, after a massive landslide smashed through a tiny coffee-growing village deep in Mexico’s southern mountains as storms battered the country.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Sep 2013, 18:12 BST

Rescuers were battling heavy rain as they tried to evacuate the last 45 residents of La Pintada.

The same storm that devastated Acapulco and surrounding areas over the weekend regenerated into Hurricane Manuel and was swirling into the Pacific coast again, this time further north, just offshore from the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan.

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The US National Hurricane Centre said the Category 1 hurricane was expected to move slightly inland and continue to dump rain on fishing villages. It is a third blow to a country still reeling from the one-two punch of Manuel’s first landfall and Hurricane Ingrid on Mexico’s eastern coast.

Officials raised the death toll from the passage of Manuel and Hurricane Ingrid from 60 to 80 yesterday.

They said they were not yet including landslide victims in the village of La Pintada, several hours north of Acapulco, but “It’s very likely that these 58 missing people lost their lives,” said Angel Aguirre, governor of storm-battered Guerrero state.

Sinaloa state civil protection authorities said some areas were already flooding and dozens were evacuated from small fishing villages.

Related topics:Mexico