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1st LD: Tropical storm "Earl" death toll rises to six in eastern Mexico

Xinhua, August 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Tropical storm "Earl" left six people dead and affected 8,200 people in its wake as it passed through the state of Veracruz in eastern Mexico, informed the state government on Saturday.

The state Ministry of Civil Protection said, via a press release, two landslides caused the death of six people in the municipalities of Coscomatepec and Tequila, both located in the center region of Veracruz.

In both cases the victims were families whose houses were buried by earth that came loose during the early hours of Saturday due to heavy rains, according to reports.

One of the incidents happened at 5:00 am local time in the town of Temazolapa, located in the mountainous municipality of Coscomatepec.

At the scene a 33-year-old man and his wife, 30, died along with their baby son aged one and a half. Their neighbors were able to rescue another of the couple's children, 8, according to the official report.

The other incident happened around 4:00 am local time in the town of Zacatlamanca, in the municipality of Tequila, where a family of the husband, wife and their three-year-old child died.

According to the state Ministry of Civil Protection, the tropical storm caused damage to 1,646 houses and affected 8,231 people in 15 municipalities in the central and southern regions of the state, including Jalapa, Cordoba, Catemaco, Zongolica, Hueyapan de Ocampo and Santiago Tuxtla.

"Earl" hit Veracruz on Friday night with winds of 65 kilometers per hour after entering Mexico from the southeast on the afternoon of Aug. 4 after first hitting land in the neighboring country of Belize as a category one hurricane the day before.

"Earl" was downgraded to a tropical storm on Aug. 4 afternoon and is currently making its way towards the central Mexican state of Puebla, Veracruz's neighboring state, according to a report from the National Civil Protection System.

Veracruz's governor, Javier Duarte, said through his official Twitter account that Veracruz was still in a state of alert due to the rising river levels.

Although it is weakened, "Earl" has caused heavy rains in 13 Mexican states, the most intense storms being in Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca (south), Hidalgo (center) and San Luis Potosi (center), according to the National Weather Service (SMN).

In its latest report, the SMN said that "Earl" may also cause very strong storms in Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Morelos and Tlaxcala, all in the center of the country, as well as in the northern state of Tamaulipas. Enditem