At least 2 dead, including infant, in Peru landslide

Rescue workers in Peru have recovered the bodies of at least two people, including a one-month-old infant, as they continue to search for missing residents after a major landslide struck a community in the country’s north. The landslide occurred on Tuesday in the town of Retamas, in Peru’s La Libertad region, destroying several homes and other structures “We managed to recover the body of one adult, a man, and a one-month-old girl,” Jose Rivas, the spokesman for the police rescue team, said on Wednesday. “Most probably he was trying to protect the girl and the landslide buried both of them,” said Rivas, adding that the bodies were found in the rubble of a market. Peruvian Defence Minister Jose Luis Gavidia had said earlier that eight people were rescued unharmed from the rubble, while eight others – including three children – remained missing. “In Peru we lack a risk map, there are people who dare to put a roof over a river or drill a hole in a hill to make homes,” said Castillo, referring to poor people with no other option than to build makeshift homes in precarious places.