Massive landslide buries parts of Peruvian town amid heavy rains

© REUTERS/ Mariana Bazo

A woman carries a baby as she walks past debris of houses after a massive landslide in Chosica, March 24, 2015.

Seven people were killed and more were feared dead in Peru after a massive landslide buried parts of a town amid heavy rains, authorities said on Tuesday.

Six were missing and 25 injured in the disaster in Chosica, some 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) east of Lima, said Alfredo Murgueytio, the head of the National Civil Defense Institute, Indeci.

"There are likely more dead bodies under the debris," Murgueytio said on local broadcaster RPP.

TV images showed water and mud rushing over the town's sloped streets and a distraught woman waving a picture of a missing girl.

The main road connecting Lima to the center of Peru, a top global producer of copper and gold, remained blocked since Monday, police said.

People remove debris of cars and houses after a massive landslide in Chosica, March 24, 2015.

The landslide destroyed 65 houses and rendered another 45 unlivable, said Indeci.

Landslides and avalanches in Peru, mainly in rural towns in the Andes and Amazon, have killed 28 people and destroyed 1,245 houses so far this year, according to Indeci.

Chosica, a town tucked between mountains and next to a river, has been damaged by landslides several times in the past.