Five bodies pulled from massive Mexico mudslide

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Rescuers have pulled five bodies from a massive mudslide that buried part of a village in southwestern Mexico, where 68 people were reported missing, the interior minister said Monday.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong did not indicate whether the bodies belonged to any of the people who were declared missing in La Pintada following deadly storms that battered Mexico last week.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said over the weekend that there was little hope of finding anybody alive in the village, which was swamped by a mudslide as people celebrated independence day on September 16.

Osorio Chong told Radio Formula that authorities found Monday eight bodies in a mudslide "very similar to La Pintada" in the town of Acatepec in the mountains of Guerrero state. He said two other people were found drowned in a river.

Authorities said late Sunday at least 110 people have died nationwide since last week's double impact from tropical storms Ingrid and Manuel.

The death toll does not include the 68 missing from La Pintada and Osorio Chong did not give an updated body count.

Abel Barrera, director of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Mountain, told AFP that local authorities have confirmed an additional 42 deaths linked to landslides and drownings in the region.