22 September 2021

Death toll in Mexico City landslide rises to four

22 September 2021

Rescue teams searching at a landslide near Mexico City have found two more bodies, bringing the death toll to four.

They announced they had found the bodies of a woman, 22, and her five-year-old son.

The landslide earlier this month brought tons of massive boulders down on a steep hillside in a low-income neighbourhood just north of Mexico City.

The 11-day search operation was complicated by the sheer size of the rocks that cleaved from the peak known as Chiquihuite. The narrow paths of the neighbourhood are largely inaccessible to heavy machinery and the exposed mountain face looming above is unstable.

The landslide in the suburb of Tlalnepantla followed days of heavy rain in central Mexico and a magnitude 7.0 earthquake centered in Acapulco that swayed buildings 200 miles away in the capital.

Mexico State Governor Alfredo del Mazo said it is likely both factors contributed to the slide.

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