Landslide toll now 210

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33521, 30 April 1974, Page 1

Landslide toll now 210

» 7. PtkS9 Association—Copyright i LIMA, April 29. Perm ran officials moved thousands of residents today from an Andean mountain \alley where landslides have already claimed more than 200 lives, United Press International reported.

Civil defence authorities said 210 people «ere -missing and presumed killed in a landslide that struck a Mantaro River valley on Friday night, hut only 18 bodies had been recovered. The victims lived in homes built on the slopes of Moyoriarca Hill, which collapsed I ! the Mantaro River. The slide also formed a dam. Water backed up into t> nstant lake 15 miles long. As a precaution against f ,rther floods, troops and re>-

’cue teams moved residents from a valley below the dam. Officials said, however, that they doubted the mass of 30,000 million cubic feet of 'stalled river water would break through the dam and flood the valley below. The civil defence officials said the river would probably spill over the crest of the dam in two or three days, and normalise its flow. Three Cabinet officials in Peru's military Government flew over the water-filled canyon yesterday, and demolition engineers inspected the area to assess the situation. The deep, twisting canyon is about 125 miles south-east of Lima. The armed forces, fearful [of a violent break in the dam. [abandoned a plan to blast it i with dive bombers. i The landslide also cut the principal supply road to the I stricken district, but civil defence officials said emergency supplies of food, fuel and medicines were reaching the area by air and alternate land routes.