Mudslides in Mexico kill 40

At least 40 people are now confirmed dead after multiple mudslides and flooding in Mexico.

Heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Earl, in the country’s eastern regions over the weekend, saw several hillsides collapse, wiping out entire villages.

The states of Puebla and Veracuz along Mexico’s Caribbean coast were the worst affected.

Earl hit Belize on Thursday as a Category One hurricane, but was later downgraded to a tropical depression.

Despite weakening by the time it got to Mexico, the storm still left a path of destruction, forcing hundreds of residents in remote villages to flee for shelter.

‘‘The water destroyed all the houses. We managed to escape but sadly some of our neighbours weren’t so lucky,’‘ said one man from the village of Huauchinango in Puebla.

‘‘We rescued ourselves, because if we hadn’t, well who knows, because some people were killed,’‘ said another man.

The latest bad weather and deaths comes as another Tropical Storm, Javier, forms off Mexico’s Pacific coast. The storm is expected to make landfall late on Tuesday.