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Mudslide buries houses in flooded Mexico

Other News Materials 6 November 2007 09:15 (UTC +04:00)

( Reuters ) - A huge wall of mud and water engulfed a remote village in flood-ravaged southern Mexico on Monday and the government said at least 16 people were missing.

Mexican media reported as many as 30 people could be missing in the landslide in southern Chiapas state that buried 100 houses in the village of San Juan Grijalva.

TV images showed a swathe of jungle swamped by water and mud, and bare earth where houses once stood in the community of 500 people.

"A mountain fell into the river, blocking the River Grijalva ... and created a wave ... that has flattened the town," Chiapas Gov. Juan Sabines told Mexican radio.

No bodies have been recovered from the site, Sabines said. "We've found people who were able to flee the enormous wave by running into the hills," he added.

Rescue workers helicoptered to the scene to evacuate survivors and President Felipe Calderon canceled his trip to a three-day Ibero-American summit starting in the Chilean capital Santiago on Thursday.

Civil protection authorities in Chiapas, a mostly indigenous state where floods killed four people last week, said they were still trying to confirm casualties.

"We have about 70 people from the village in shelters and about 14 to 16 people missing but the area is so remote and communication links are down so our search is slow," said rescue worker Alejandro Cabrera.

San Juan Grijalva is close to Tabasco state, which is mostly under water after last week's rain caused rivers to burst their banks and left some 800,000 people homeless.

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