- By Vanessa Buschschlueter
- BBC News
March 27, 2023
Updated 18 minutes ago
picture description,
Part of the hill collapsed on houses below
Search teams in Ecuador are combing the mud for survivors of a landslide that buried entire families in the mountains outside the town of Alausí.
More than 60 people have been reported missing after tons of mud slid down the slope in the Chimborazo region.
Government officials said seven people have been confirmed dead.
More than 30 were rescued alive.
The landslide happened on Sunday evening after months of heavy rain.
As of 5:00 p.m. local time (12:00 GMT) Monday, 64 people remained missing.
Rescuers said they heard noises that led them to believe a 12-year-old boy might still be alive beneath the mud.
El Comercio newspaper published footage of the moment search teams asked for silence while listening for noises.
Skip Twitter content, 1Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded as cookies and other technologies may be used. You might want to read Twitter Cookie Policy And Privacy Policy before accepting. To view this content, select “Accept and continue”.
Accept and continue
End of Twitter content, Jan
Local media said local residents had warned of fault lines that would form in the area after heavy rains. Just a few days ago, the highway linking Alausí to Guamote was closed indefinitely after the asphalt cracked.
A local resident told local media that “the mountainside slid down like a rocket on Sunday night,” burying several houses under soil and rocks.
Local radio reporters described “heartbreaking scenes” as relatives rushed to the site in search of loved ones.
President Guillermo Lasso visited the area on Monday. In a tweet, he said help was coming “from all sides.”
“You are not alone, the whole country is behind you,” he added.
But when he visited, some booed and whistled, others shouted “Lasso out”. Local residents told local media they were upset and claimed their warnings about the precarious condition of the hilltop homes had not been heeded.
The landslide came just over a week after an earthquake hit Ecuador’s southern coast that killed more than a dozen people.