Venezuela: At least 22 dead and 50 missing due to landslides and floods in the city of Las Tejerias

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AFP journalists saw in Teheria houses that were completely destroyed, shops that suffered enormous damage, mudslides, trees that were swept away by a mountain mass scattered on the streets.

At least 22 people are dead and 52 others are missing after a landslide Saturday night in Las Tejerias, an industrial city about seventy kilometers southwest of the capital Caracas, announced Sunday the Vice President of Venezuela, Delsy Rodriguez.

The heavy rains that have been hitting the Latin American country for weeks had already claimed the lives of 13 people.

“Five tributaries overflowed and (…) we find here very large damages and human losses: (…) we have found 22 dead, there are at least 52 missing,” Mrs. Rodrigues told the media.

AFP journalists saw in Teheria houses that were completely destroyed, shops that suffered enormous damage, mudslides, trees that were swept away by a mountain mass scattered on the streets.

A thousand people are involved in the ongoing search and rescue operation, said Interior and Justice Minister Remigio Sebagios Itacasso, who went to the city to see the extent of the damage.

“We lost boys and girls,” said Vice President Rodriguez, “what happened is a tragedy.”

Carmen Melendez, a resident of this city of 55,000-plus for 55 years, despaired, “Las Tejerias is lost.”

In 1999, massive landslides killed some 10,000 people in the state of Vargas, 25 kilometers north of Caracas.

RES-EMP

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