Oaxaca, Mexico Mudslide: At least 7 dead, more than 120 missing

September 29th, 2010 - 2:19 am ICT by BNO News  

MEXICO CITY (BNO NEWS) — A massive landslide buried between 100 and 300 homes in southwestern Mexico on early Tuesday morning, officials said, killing at least seven people and leaving hundreds missing.

The landslide happened around 4 a.m. local time when a part of the mountain range in the indigenous Mixe region collapsed due to heavy rainfall, said Luis Marín Castillejos, an official with the state’s Civil Protection department.

The landslide buried between 100 and 300 homes in the town of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec in southwest Mexico’s Oaxaca state.

Hundreds of emergency workers rushed to the scene, including the Mexican army and officers from the Federal Police, to launch a large scale rescue operation. They were slowed down by bad weather and because roads in the area were blocked by the landslide.

Earlier in the day, Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz told national television that between 500 and as many as 1,000 people may have been killed or trapped.

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