Floods in South America

Peru, Chile and Bolivia hit by record floods, after heavy rain: 6 dead

Torrential rain has been causing havoc along the Pacific coast side of South America, with flooding causing the deaths of at least six people in Peru.

BBC,

26 January, 2013

In the southern city of Arequipa, thousands of people were left without electricity and drinking water.

In Chile, some four million people were hit by cuts to water supply blamed on landslides in San Jose de Maipo, 30 miles (48 km) south east of Santiago.

The landslides contaminated two rivers supplying the capital's water plants.

The Aguas Andinas water company said it expected to bring the water supply back to normal by Sunday afternoon.

Last week, even Chile's Atacama desert, one of the driest places in the world, suffered with heavy rain.

Bodies in car

In Peru, thousands of people have been left without electricity and drinking water

The authorities in Peru declared a state of emergency in Arequipa.

The national meteorological service said that the bad weather brought down the equivalent of three months of rain in about seven hours.

"There are no records of an event of this magnitude", the local director of the service, Sebastian Zuniga, told the Andina news agency.

At least two bodies were found in a car that was buried in mud after a road collapsed.

Torrential rain has also fallen over most regions in neighbouring Bolivia.

Nearly 9,000 people are said to have been affected and crops lost to the rain.

Last week, Brazil announced it would send 500 tonnes of rice to aid Bolivians hit by the natural disaster