Landslide kills at least 11 on Bolivian highway

Police General Romulo Delgado said the dead included six adults and five minors.

Firefighters try to rescue victims from a car after a mudslide on the outskirts of El Choro, Bolivia, on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. According to police, at least five people died and others were injured after vehicles were dragged Saturday by a mudslide on a mountainous road in the north of La Paz.

Authorities have said that searchers had recovered 11 bodies from a landslide that buried cars on a highway in the mountains northeast of Bolivia’s capital a day earlier. At least 18 other people were reported injured.

Officials also said new mudslides occurred in the same area as a result of a third day of heavy rains, though there was no immediate word of any casualties.

Tons of earth and mud collapsed on the mountain highway near a spot known as El Choro on Saturday. Public Works chief Oscar Coca said the bodies had been in two cars that were swept some 200 meters (650 feet) down a canyon.

Heavy rains had been falling for two days and the cars were in a line of vehicles making their way along a muddy patch of road when the mountainside gave way.

Police General Romulo Delgado said the dead included six adults and five minors.