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Mexico mudslide kills 16 in southern Chiapas state


    MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A hill collapsed in torrential rain in southern Mexico on Wednesday and killed 16 people in the latest deadly mudslide linked to tropical storms, the government said.

    Laura Gurza, a rescue official with the Interior Ministry, said most bodies had been recovered from the mud in the remote municipality of Amatan in the coffee-growing, largely indigenous state of Chiapas.

    "They've pulled out 14 bodies and two more confirmed are being recovered now," Gurza said.

    Earlier, President Felipe Calderon reported on his Twitter page that 12 people were confirmed dead.

    In the neighbouring state of Oaxaca, about a dozen people are missing following a landslide on Tuesday that buried homes.

    Earlier in the month, at least eight were killed after a hill collapsed in a rural area outside Mexico City. Workers trying to clear a road rendered impassable by mud and debris were killed by the landslide, authorities said.

    (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Peter Cooney)