According to the interior minister, thousands of people were evacuated in Chile on Sunday after heavy rains caused the Rio Maule to burst its banks in the south of the country, killing two people.
In her latest official report on Sunday evening, Home Secretary Carolina Toha confirmed that two people had died in flooding and six others were still missing. The tally also lists 9,814 isolated people, 4,077 victims and 2,054 other homeless people.
On Sunday, the rise in the Maule River (middle), the level of which had already doubled a few hours before the report was published, came under close scrutiny from the authorities. They also ordered the evacuation of 1,800 people living near the coast in the town of Constitucion, some 400 km south of the capital Santiago (centre).
According to the authorities, the heavy rains in the south of the country are the worst rains ever recorded in Chile. In particular, they caused the flooding of the two main rivers that wash the capital, the Maipo and the Mapocho, before inundating several places in the south.
Aerial photos broadcast by local television stations showed severe flooding in Cotauco and Licantén, two towns south of Santiago.
The heavy rains that began Thursday were concentrated in mountain and foothill areas where snow normally falls, prompting a rapid increase in river flow.