At least 8 people have been reported dead and several injured following a deadly landslide in southern Peru amid heavy rainfall on Monday, February 6.
As Aljazeera and other News Agencies reports, a bureau for Peru’s Ministry of Health stated that 20 more people were treated for minor injuries in the mountainous town of Secocha, where the landslide occurred.
Located on the banks of the Ocoña River in Camaná province, Secocha is among the areas in the department of Arequipa facing high water levels as heavy rain continues to fall.
On Monday morning, the Ocoña was flowing at a rate of 585.6 cubic meters per second, with the Peruvian government warning that the swollen river could affect the nearby population centers.
The Ministry of Health announced on Twitter that it would send “two brigades made up of doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals to the area”, as well as 150kg of medicine to the region.
The Peru army has also been deployed helicopters to the region, transporting humanitarian aid, drinking water, and sandbags to the emergency site.
The Ministry of Defence said in a tweet that search and rescue efforts continue calling out misinformation surrounding the landslide. With some media reports setting the death toll as high as 36, on the other hand, the ministry wrote it recommended that members of the public should obtain information from official sources.
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The Associated Press (AP) News Agency reports that Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defense official in the Mariano Nicolás Valcárcel municipality, had previously said in an interview with radio station RPP that 36 people had died in an isolated area called Miski.
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RPP News also reported that some of the dead had been struck by falling rocks as they traveled by truck along the Urasqui-Secocha highway.
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The landslide strikes amid ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Peru, many of which are concentrated in southern regions including Arequipa.
The protests were sparked in December last year when then-President Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve Congress illegally ahead of his third impeachment hearing. The move led Congress to overwhelmingly impeach Castillo, who has since been detained on charges of rebellion and conspiracy.
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