At least 27 people have died and 67 others are still missing after a landslide buried part of a district in the Andes city of Alausi, in the southern part of Ecuador, according to the latest death toll released Saturday by the authorities.

A giant chunk of the mountain broke off overnight last Sunday into Monday and flattened a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of 45,000 in Ciborasso province, about 300 kilometers south of the capital Quito.

Ecuador’s public prosecutor’s office reported yesterday via Twitter that 27 deaths have now been confirmed after the landslide in Alausi.

According to the latest figures from the National Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR), there are also 38 injured, 67 people still missing and a total of around 850 affected. 57 houses were completely destroyed.

The search and rescue teams continued yesterday, “for the sixth consecutive day, the search for the missing”, SNGR underlined.

The area where Alausi is located had been on “yellow alert” since February due to rainfall.

Due to the deadly earthquake that struck the country in March and the rains, floods and landslides since the beginning of the year, the government has declared a state of emergency in 14 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces so that resources can be freed up to provide relief to the affected.

The wave of bad weather since January destroyed or damaged roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Even before last Sunday’s landslide, since the beginning of the year similar events had claimed the lives of 22 people and left another 346 homeless. Over 6,900 houses were damaged, 72 were completely destroyed.