The number of people killed in a massive landslide in Ecuador has risen to 27, officials said on Saturday. However, rescuers still searching for dozens of people still missing after a tragedy almost a week ago. At least 163 homes were destroyed or damaged after heavy rains late Sunday ripped off a large part of the mountainside, burying part of the town of Arausi, officials said.
Rescuers have spent the last six days digging through the rubble in the southern town some 180 miles (300 kilometres) south of the capital Quito searching for dozens of people, with the death toll steadily climbing.
On Friday the Secretariat of Risk Management said 23 people had died, 38 were injured and 67 remained missing.
But by Saturday the toll of the landslide had climbed to “27 confirmed deaths after the collapse”. The national prosecutors’ office reported this on their Twitter account.
Officials said rescue teams were still searching for missing people, though it was not immediately clear how many.
The same region was hit by an earthquake just over a week earlier in which 15 people were killed.
After months of heavy rains, the government declared a two-month state of emergency in 13 of the country’s 24 provinces. This will hopefully allow economic resources to be redistributed to affected areas.
cc: Punch Ng
