Ecuador’s Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday raised to 43 the number of deaths caused by the landslide registered at the end of March in the municipality of Alausí, in the province of Chimborazo, in the center of the country.
The institution has ordered the recovery of four more bodies -two men and two women- which join the previous toll of 39 dead from the natural disaster that occurred three weeks ago, but in which rescue operations are still underway.
The country’s emergency services have explained that the rescue operations are still being carried out in complicated conditions and under the risk of a new landslide, according to the newspaper ‘El Comercio’.
The country’s Risk Management Secretariat already indicated last week that an ‘orange alert’ has been declared in the area, which covers the communities of Casual and the neighborhoods of La Esperanza, Control Norte, Nueva Alausí, Pircapamba and Bua.
The total number of victims has risen to more than 1,000, while almost 2.5 kilometers of road have been affected and more than 40 people were injured. The landslide covered an area of 24.3 hectares.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
