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No deaths confirmed in Oaxaca mudslide

Other News Materials 29 September 2010 11:46 (UTC +04:00)
Authorities said a landslide in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca was less deadly than initially feared with no confirmed deaths so far.
No deaths confirmed in Oaxaca mudslide

Authorities said a landslide in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca was less deadly than initially feared with no confirmed deaths so far.

Governor Ulises Ruiz and Interior Minister Jose Francisco Blake Mora said Wednesday that 11 people were missing and four houses had been buried in Tuesday's landslide, which happened in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, 70 kilometres east of the provincial capital, Oaxaca, DPA reported.

Ruiz initially said 500 to 600 people might have been killed. Local media had reported 300 houses had been buried and seven bodies had been recovered.

But army units and other rescuers who first reached the disaster area on foot because of destroyed roads, later said the situation was less grave than feared.

President Felipe Calderon, who initially called the landslide a "national tragedy," also confirmed late Tuesday that the disaster's scale was less grave than feared.

Southern Mexico has been hit by days of rain. Most recently, Tropical Storm Matthew prompted flooding and landslides. Some 400 people have been killed by flooding and landslides during the rainy season in Mexico and Central America since May.

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