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© European Press Agency A landslide in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Reports suggest up to 1,000 people may have died in the remote area of south-western Mexico
'We can't even see the homes,' survivor says; 8,000 people impacted, more slides feared

Hundreds of people were buried in their homes early Tuesday after a rain-soaked mountainside gave way in southwestern Mexico, officials said.

Donato Vargas, an official in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec reached by phone, said 500 people were missing and that 300 homes were buried after the slide around 4 a.m. local time.

"We were all sleeping and all I heard was a loud noise and when I left the house I saw that the hill had fallen," Vargas said.

"It has been difficult informing authorities because the roads are very bad and there isn't a good signal for our phone," Vargas said shortly before the call dropped.

Reached by the news agency AFP, Vargas added that "we fear that those missing are buried inside their homes because we've already searched nearby areas."

Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz earlier told the Televisa TV network that roads cut off by other slides and flooding had slowed the arrival of rescuers and machinery to dig through the rubble.

"We haven't reached the location yet," Ruiz said. "There has been lots of rain, rivers have overflowed and we're having a hard time reaching the area because there are landslides on the roads."

Ruiz said the major landslide followed days of rain in the Sierra de Juarez region.

The town, population 9,000, saw a small landslide on Sept. 13 that damaged several homes.

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The town is about four hours' drive from the capital of Oaxaca, a city famous for its colonial buildings and nearby archeological sites.

Heavy rains have fallen on Central America and parts of Mexico for days as two storm systems moved across the western Caribbean.

Parts of Mexico are enduring their worst rainy season on record, which has triggered heavy flooding and forced thousands of people from their homes in vulnerable parts of the country.

Huge swaths of riverside communities in southern Mexico were still under water Tuesday - flooding exacerbated by the passage of Hurricane Karl and Tropical Storm Matthew. At least 15 deaths in Mexico were blamed on the hurricane.

In Oaxaca state alone, rains and flooding in recent days have claimed 10 lives and impacted 250,000 people.

In Honduras, authorities said four people, including a child, drowned in rivers and creeks swollen by Tropical Storm Matthew.