Mudslide kills eight in Mexico

Heavy rains triggered a mudslide that buried a home in southern Mexico, killing five adults and three children, authorities said Saturday.

The deadly slide took place Friday night in Amatan, a community 250 miles (400 kilometers) northeast of Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Mexico's southernmost Chiapas state, said Leonardo Munos, deputy secretary of civil protection for Chiapas.

The victims included workers assigned to remove debris and rebuild roads damaged by Hurricane Stan, which ripped through Chiapas last month.

The group apparently sought refuge from the downpours in the Amatan home of one of the employees. Officials on Saturday were working to identify the victims and it was unclear if the children who died had lived in the home.

Recent storms have caused flooding and evacuations elsewhere in Chiapas, including in the municipality of Suchiate, near the Guatemala border, where Mayor Oscar Salinas said at least 1,800 people were forced to flee their homes.

Stan hit southern Mexico on Oct. 4, contributing to flooding and mudslides that killed 71 people in Chiapas and left 654 dead, and 828 missing, in Guatemala. Another 71 died in El Salvador, AP reports.

A. A.