One woman and five children killed in Veracruz mudslide

The funeral has been held of a family of six who died when a landslide engulfed their home in the Mexican state of Veracruz on Saturday.

A mother and five of her six children – the youngest just two weeks old – were killed in the landslide triggered by Hurricane Grace in the city of Xalapa.

The woman’s husband has been telling local media how he and his neighbours tried to free his family from the mud.

Rescuers eventually managed to pull a seven-year-old boy out alive.

The man, named as Adán by local media, said he had run from their simple home on a hillside when he had heard a loud roar early in the morning on Saturday.

Fearing that the hill behind the house might be about to collapse, he shouted at neighbours to help him get his family out.

“When I returned, I found my wife and children had already been buried under the mud,” he told newspaper El Sol de Orizaba.

The dead have been named as 27-year-old Dora Isabel and her children Kevin, 9, Cristofer, 5, Axel Jair, 4, Alexa 3, and two-week-old baby María Fernanda.

Adán and his neighbours described how they heard one voice calling for help. Rescue workers with search dogs managed to locate his seven-year-old son, who was freed from the mud with only some minor injuries.

Nearby, a seven-year-old girl was also killed when a wall collapsed on top of her as the foundations of her home gave way.

Another man died under rubble in the north of Veracruz. No more details have been released of the ninth casualty.

Hurricane Grace brought wind speeds of up to 200km/h (125mph) when it reached the coast of mainland Mexico early on Saturday.

Torrential rains caused widespread flooding in Xalapa before Grace weakened into a tropical storm as it moved inland.

Source: El Universal

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