1,000 die in hillside collapse

Sep 29, 2010 |

Mexico, Sept. 28: Around 1,000 people were feared dead after a waterlogged hillside collapsed before dawn on Tuesday in southern Mexico, burying up to 300 homes as residents slept inside, local officials said.

A strip of hillside about 200-metres (660 feet) wide collapsed above a group of some 100 to 300 homes in the state of Oaxaca, the state’s governor, Mr Ulises Ruiz said.

The landslide occurred about 3 am (local time) in the town of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, officials said.

But more than six hours after the tragedy, rescue teams had yet to reach the scene in the mountains of Oaxaca, part of a wide area of Mexico devastated this year by what officials describe as the heaviest rains on record.“We have not been able to get there yet,” Mr Ruiz said.

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