Alud buries dozens of houses in an Andean town in Peru

He adds statements by the Minister of Defense and the president's announcement that he will travel to the avalanche area. Repeat without mention Infographic ///Lima, 16 Mar 2022 (AFP) - A landslide of stone and mud from a hill buried dozens of houses in an Andean town in northern Peru on Tuesday, leaving about twenty missing.” No! God! Everything was covered”, one person who recorded the collapse of the hill said in a video circulated on social networks.The governor of the northern region of La Libertad, Manuel Llempén, told RPP radio that “the hill slide has covered, according to the preliminary report, approximately 60 to 80 houses. They have been completely covered.” We have estimated that between 15 and 20 people are still missing,” said the Minister of Defense, José Gavidia, in the affected town on Tuesday night, about 12 hours after the collapse of the hill. The avalanche occurred around 08:30 local (13h30 GMT) in the town of Retamas, at 2,800 meters above sea level, in the district of Parcoy, and according to Rolando Capucho, a head of the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN), got at least 15 people trapped. Of these, “eight people have been rescued,” said Minister Gavidia, who arrived in the affected village in the afternoon. Among the missing are three children, according to the director of risk management of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Jorge Luis Escobar, to the television channel N. The Commissioner of Retamas, Lieutenant Carlos Alberto Valderrama, indicated that police rescuers and firefighters are working to remove debris to locate people disappeared.” We have managed to rescue four people, including a Venezuelan citizen who was trapped in a market. So far we have not found any deceased,” Valderrama told AFP on the phone. Then the minister raised the number of rescued to eight.” The area is isolated. There are cracks in the hill, we have information that another collapse may occur,” the officer added. Gavidia explained that the authorities have “had a lot of difficulty evicting people, [because] they did not want to leave their homes” despite the risk of new landslides. - “I was able to get out on time” - Avalanches occur with some regularity during the southern summer months in the Andean region of Peru, due to seasonal rainfall. The town of Retamas, inhabited by families of miners, is 16 hours by car from the city of Trujillo, the regional capital located on the coast, 500 km north of Lima.” I was able to get out in time, my house was buried. The collapse left us with nothing,” Ledy Leiva, who was able to leave his house with five other family members, told the RPP radio station. Several trapped people were rescued by neighbors who drilled roofs and walls of buried houses, before rescuers arrived, local media reported. Peruvian President Pedro Castillo announced on Tuesday night that he will travel to Retamas and that his government will support families affected by the landslide.” I am going to the province of Pataz [where Retamas is located] to verify in situ the area affected by the accident that occurred this morning,” the president tweeted after delivering a message to the plenary of the Congress. Castillo had earlier ordered the chief of Civil Defense and Gavidia to travel to the area along with rescuers.” I am in solidarity and accompany the pain of the families who have been suffering the regrettable consequences of the landslide,” the Archbishop of Trujillo, Miguel Cabrejos, also president of the Latin American Episcopal Council (Celam), wrote on twitter.Cabrejos added that the avalanche “has brought the loss of life as a more dire consequence human rights”, although so far the Peruvian authorities have not reported any deaths. In 2009, at least 13 dead, including a child, left an avalanche that buried several houses in Retamas.” This place had already been identified as a high-risk area,” warned Miguel Yamazaki, director of Preparation at INDECI.CM/LJC/FJ/YOW/ATM —