Peru: 18, Including 3 Children, Killed in Mudslides

Peruvian authorities announced the death toll from devastating mudslides in the country’s southern and central regions rose to 18, including three children.

The landslides took place last Sunday and left 27 people injured and 20 others missing, according to data from Peru’s National Institute of Civil Defense.

Rains were the heaviest in the Arequipa region, where homes, roads, schools, and a medical center were destroyed in Camana province.

Officials pointed out that the children who died ranged in age from one to 10 years old.

Earlier this month, landslides triggered by continuous rain swept through mud, water, and rocks in several villages in southern Peru killing 36 people in a remote sector called Miski.

Among the dead were five people who were traveling in a truck that was pushed into a river by mud.

Local officials pleaded for heavy machinery to be sent in to remove rubble blocking three kilometers (nearly two miles) of an important road.