Buenos Aires, Jun. 18, (dpa/GNA) – At least seven people have died in landslides triggered by heavy rains in mountainous central Ecuador, police said on Monday evening.
A further 16 people were injured while around 20 were missing, police said.
Search and rescue operations were continuing in the provinces of Tungurahua and Chimborazo, where heavy rains at the weekend triggered landslides.
In Chimborazo, some 40 people were rescued after the Chambo River swelled and several houses were swept away by the water.
In the area of Gualiñag, police were recovering four bodies from a car swept away by a landslide.
Meanwhile in Central America, heavy rainfall in El Salvador caused at least 11 deaths, according to the country’s civil defence authorities, with the government declaring a state of emergency.
Some 880 people have been relocated to emergency shelters, El Salvador’s Interior Ministry said.
Heavy rainfall has also caused flooding and mudslides in Guatemala, Honduras, as well as in the south-east of Mexico.
Meteorologists are monitoring the possible formation of the first tropical cyclone of the season in the Gulf of Mexico.
The US National Hurricane Center said that the weather system was likely to cause heavy rainfall and coastal flooding in north-eastern Mexico and the US state of Texas as early as Tuesday.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted an above-normal hurricane season in the Atlantic basin, which goes from June 1 to November 30, due to high Atlantic Ocean water temperatures and the anticipated onset of the La Niña climate phenomenon.