rains in Bolivia cause landslide destroying homes

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A landslide caused by heavy rains after a prolonged drought in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, flooded dozens of homes early Sunday, local authorities said. It swept away a young girl, spurred evacuations and left parts of the city without electricity.

Torrential rain on Saturday caused a river to spill its banks, dislodging mud from a southwestern La Paz neighborhood where low-slung, shoddily built dwellings dot the hillside.

The torrent of rocks and soil surged down a narrow ravine early Sunday, wrecking some two dozen homes and flooding another 40, said Juan Carlos Calvimontes, Bolivia's deputy civil defense minister.

"I lost my workshop and the cars that I had there are buried," said auto mechanic Luis Mencias, his voice shaking as he surveyed the sea of debris.

Hours after the rain subsided, rescuers were still searching for a missing 5-year-old girl in the inundated neighborhood of Bajo Llojeta. Emergency workers trudged through the boot-sucking mud on Sunday, pulling at least six residents ? suffering from hypothermia, their hair matted with sludge ? from the collapsed hillside. Soldiers helped clear mud from the streets.

"My daughter was with her cousins when the mud came," said Grover Mendoza, the missing girl's father. "The neighbors rescued my nephews, but my daughter was missing."

The mayor of La Paz, Iv?n Arias, directly blamed the poor construction of houses perched on the hillside without permits.