Seven dead and 128 missing after landslide in Mexico

SEVEN people are dead and 128 more missing after a hurricane-drenched hillside collapsed on sleeping residents in a rural Mexican community, disaster officials have said.

• Mexico President Felipe Calderon called the landslide a "regrettable tragedy." Pic: Getty

The death toll could rise much higher in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, a town about 130 miles southeast of Mexico City. Cipriano Gomez, a municipal official, said rescue workers had not yet been able to recover any bodies as they struggled to use heavy machinery on rain-soaked, unstable terrain.

Oaxaca's governor, Ulises Ruiz, told local radio that up to 300 homes were buried in the landslide.

In a statement, President Felipe Calderon called the landslide a "regrettable tragedy" and promised support for the residents.

Those who escaped have had no success digging out their neighbours, said Donato Vargas, an official in Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec.

"We have been using a backhoe but there is a lot of mud. We can't even see the homes, we can't hear shouts, we can't hear anything," he said.

An eighth person was killed in another mudslide in the state of Oaxaca.

Weeks of heavy rains, including those brought by Hurricane Karl and Tropical Storm Matthew, have caused havoc and dozens of deaths in southern Mexico, Central America and parts of South America.

Mr Vargas said the mudslide dragged houses packed with sleeping families about 1,300 feet downhill, along with cars, animals and street lights.

"We were all sleeping and all I heard was a loud noise and when I left the house I saw that the hill had fallen," he said.

"We were left without electricity, without telephone and we couldn't help them. There was no way to move the mud."

Mr Vargas said he contacted the governor on the town's satellite phone, but that eight hours after the slide no rescue crews had reached the area.

He added: "There is no way to communicate, the roads are shut down. All we have is this satellite phone."

Meanwhile, he said there is another hill which could give way in a separate area of the community of 9,000 people.

"We are in a serious risk situation," he said. "In all of our neighbourhoods there are houses and roads cracked and about to fall."

Rescuers were flying in from Mexico City and emergency personnel have been sent to the town about 50 miles east of Oaxaca, the closest large city.

The federal Interior Department said rescue workers from the army, navy and federal police were being flown to the area with rescue dogs and heavy machinery. Oaxaca state civil protection operations co-ordinator Luis Marin said rescue crews had yet to reach the area.

He added that another slide, in the community of Villa Hidalgo, killed at least one person.

Huge swaths of riverside communities in southern Mexico were still under water yesterday, flooding exacerbated by the passage of Hurricane Karl and Tropical Storm Matthew.At least 15 deaths in Mexico have already been blamed on the hurricane. Clean-up operations were yesterday getting under way after Tropical Storm Matthew hit the region on Sunday.