Mexico landslide 7 dead, 100 missing

OAXACA: Residents of a remote Mexican town launched a desperate bare-handed effort Tuesday to rescue an estimated 100 people missing after a landslide buried hundreds of homes overnight.


A preliminary death toll was put at seven, but there has been confusion over how many people may have been killed.


Military units and rescue crews with ambulances and helicopters were prevented from reaching the town of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec by additional landslides that blocked roads and bad weather in the mountainous region, hours after the first wall of mud was unleashed at 3:00 am (0800 GMT).


But the first group of rescue crews led by army troops finally made it through over 12 hours after disaster struck the town of 10,000, located about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Oaxaca City.


At least seven people were confirmed dead in the disaster, which occurred when a hillside 200 meters (660 feet) wide collapsed in the rain-soaked southern state of Oaxaca, authorities said.


Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz initially told Mexican television that the landslide buried between 100 and 300 homes and that "as many as 1,000" people were feared dead in a region already hit by deadly flooding in the wake of Tropical Storm Matthew.

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