At least 15 dead in landslides in southern Peru

Residents of Secocha, southern Peru, walk among the debris in their village after it was devastated by a landslide. Landslides in southern Peru have left at least 15 people dead, 20 injured and two missing, authorities have said, warning that the toll from the disaster could rise.

"The number of people dead so far has risen to 15," said the directorate of the National Civil Defense Institute in the Arequipa region, where mud and rock slides began on Sunday as a result of torrential rains.

Arequipa governor Rohel Sanchez said "the situation in these four towns is really bad."

In hills near the villages, miners were working and were probably swept away, Sanchez said.

Hardest hit were four villages in an area called Nicolas Valcarcel, where heavy rains had been falling since Sunday.

The landslides in Nicolas Valcarcel caused damage to 310 homes and destroyed another 10, and also affected a health facility and three rural roads, authorities said.

Officials in Arequipa asked the national government to declare a state of emergency.

They requested support in the form of helicopters to carry out humanitarian flights, heavy machinery to clear the rubble and fuel, Sanchez explained.

Meanwhile, other landslides that occurred on Sunday in two Andean districts of the central region of Lima damaged 99 homes, leaving 265 people homeless and another 365 with damage to their homes, according to a Civil Defense report.