Peru: Steady Rains Set off Mudslides, Killing at Least 36

Landslides triggered by continuous rain swept through mud, water, and rocks in several villages in southern Peru, killing at least 36 people, according to authorities on Monday.

Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defense official in the Mariano Nicolás Valcárcel municipality in Camana province, told local RPP radio that 36 bodies were found 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.

Civil defense officials said an estimated 630 homes were rendered unusable after landslides that also hit bridges, irrigation canals, and roads.

Constant rains are frequent in February in Peru and often cause deadly landslides.