Big death toll in Peruvian landslide

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32561, 22 March 1971, Page 1

Big death toll in Peruvian landslide

• (N .Z.PA.-Reuter—Copyright) LIMA (Peru), March 21. The Peruvian Interior Minister (General Armando Artola), said that 259 people were killed last Thursday in a landslide that buried a mining camp 150 miles north-east of Lima under tons of mud and rocks.

. In announcing the official toll, the Minister described as “exaggerated” reports that 1000 or more were killed or missing.

One of the directors of the Chungar Lead and Copper Mining Camp, Mr Mirko Ukovich, said that the number of missing was 240 to 300. The deaths occurred when an avalanche of rocks and mud swept down on the small village. The Civil Guard said that the village was practically buried when a mountain lake spilled its banks and a torrent of water cascaded down into the valley. One of those rescued, a 35-year-old miner, Luis Ilodoro Reyna, told how a huge cascade of water swept down on Chungar from the lake, washing away miners’ houses. “A mass of rocks fell into Lake Yanahuarina. The lake overflowed as a 60ft wave buried Chungar under thousands of tons of rock, mud and water.”

Among those who escaped were about 25 miners from a local mine who climbed Up narrow and almost vertical airshafts. Rescue teams took the injured to hospital in the nearby towns of Huaron, Alpamarca and Santander, where the Red Cross has sent large contingents of doctors and nurses. But Civil Guard and police rescuers reported that supply convoys were- being slowed down badly by the poor state of the mountain roads, which were washed away in parts or covered with debris.

Another problem was the 13,000-feet altitude which made airlifts perilous and meant leaving supplies some distance from the village. Officials believed the landslide might have been caused by an earth tremor which was felt only slightly in Lima but was probably more in-

tense in the Chungar region, Last May a severe earthquake in north-central Peru killed between 50,000 and 70,000 people and shattered 46 towns. In the 'quake last May the town of Yngay, in the fertile Huaylas Valley, was washed away when a lake ruptured and about 15,000 inhabitants were killed. ... ... . . The Government warned in June that many more villages might suffer a similar fate if other tremors damaged the rock walls of lakes high on the mountain slopes. The Chungar rescue operation ha s been complicated by smaller landslides which have cut off about 13 small hamlets in the area.

Civil guard units had to clear roads and repair bridges to bring in emergency supplies for about 10,000 people.