Peru mudslide kills at least 15 at wedding celebration

An avalanche of mud and rocks has crashed into a hotel during a wedding celebration in southeastern Peru, killing at least 15 people, authorities say.

Civil defence chief Jorge Chavez said that dozens of people who had been dancing were caught under the collapsing wall and a roof early on Sunday at the Alhambra hotel in the Andean city of Abancay.

Chavez told RPP radio that at least 30 people had been pulled from the debris with injuries and were being treated at a nearby hospital.
 
“The avalanche broke through the walls of the hotel, entering into it with force,” Evaristo Ramos, the mayor of Abancay, told the radio station on Sunday.
 
Ramos said about 100 guests had been invited to the wedding party and at least 34 are injured.