11 missing after mudslide hits town

A landslide hit the tourist town below Peru’s famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu early today, leaving 11 people missing and feared dead and blocking the only route into the town, President Alejandro Toledo said.

A second avalanche buried the rail line – the only route in or out of the town of Aguas Calientes – hampering rescue efforts. A few hundred tourists were among those stranded in the town.

Toledo was at Machu Picchu, 310 miles (500 kilometres) south-east of the capital, Lima, when the landslide hit following heavy rains and was co-ordinating rescue efforts, according to a Government Palace statement.

At least 11 people were missing and six houses were destroyed, the statement said.