Kindgo
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#1 -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2904453.stm
Hundreds of people are reported to be missing in northern Bolivia after a landslide buried about 400 homes.
A mass of earth and rock broke away from Pucaloma mountain, engulfing a mining community at Chima - about 250 kilometres (155 miles) north-east of the capital La Paz, local reports said.
Initial reports from the scene said that about 700 people - most of them adults - were in their houses when the landslide occurred at about 1030 (1430 GMT), the Spanish news agency Efe reported.
Several of the injured have been taken to hospital in the nearby town of Tipuani.
Bodies have also been recovered, Efe said.
'Tragedy'
Local mining official Jose Plata told local radio it was hard to estimate the number of victims as everything had been submerged by the landslide.
"We have suffered a tragedy this morning, the losses are impossible to calculate," he said.
Stones and mud covered an area more than 100 metres (yards) wide where many of the houses in the village once stood, he added.
Authorities in La Paz said they were trying to get rescue workers to the scene of the landslide but warned the process could take several hours, the Associated Press news agency reported.
They have also reportedly asked for emergency aid from the central government.
Landslides 'common'
Regional government officials said that the disaster may have been caused by gold-mining operations that weakened a nearby mountain.
Mr Plata also said that the landslide had buried much of the local miners' equipment.
The town is said to be located in a tropical area where landslides are common.
A similar landslide two years ago buried a nearby gold-mining community, killing eight miners, AP said.
#2 -- http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/ameri...e.ap/index.html
A landslide buried hundreds of homes in a mining town in northern Bolivia Monday, and officials say a large number of residents are missing.
The landslide in the town of Chima buried about 400 houses, La Paz Gov. Mateo Laura told the television network Unitel.
Jose Plata, an official of the local mining cooperatives, told Radio Fides of La Paz that many Chima residents are missing. He said hundreds of people may be affected but government officials did not give an exact figure.
"We have suffered a tragedy this morning. The losses are impossible to calculate," Plata told the station.
Government officials say the disaster may have been caused by gold-mining operations that weakened a nearby mountain.
Plata said the landslide also buried almost all the equipment and machinery used by miners in the town 125 miles north of La Paz. The town is located in a tropical area where landslides are common. The government said rescue personnel, equipment and food were being sent to the area, but that could take many hours because of bad roads. There are no landing strips in the area.
Plata said dozens of children returned home from school only to find the destruction and that their parents were missing. "We ask central government authorities for their solidarity, Plata told the radio station. "This is such a big suffering here."
A number of wounded rescued from the rubble were rushed to a hospital in the nearby town of Caranavi, he said.
"We ask authorities to send a helicopter to check the damage so they will see we are not exaggerating," Plata added.
Some injured miners were sent to a hospital in a community two hours from the disaster, a mining authority said.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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