Officials reported on Sunday that a landslide in central Venezuela resulted in the deaths of at least 22 people and the disappearance of more than 50 others after a river overflowed. This is the latest fatal calamity triggered by heavy rains to rock the country.

As a result of unprecedented precipitation, dozens of people have perished in recent months in the crisis-stricken South American country.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez told local journalists at the scene in the village of Las Tejerias, "We are seeing very significant damage here, human losses: so far, we have already found 22 dead, there are more than 52 people missing," We are striving to locate these individuals.

The town's streets were strewn with mud and debris, including splintered wood, household objects, and wrecked automobiles, as well as houses and businesses that were devastated.

"The village has vanished. Las Tejerias is lost, "Carmen Melendez, a 55-year-old inhabitant of the hamlet in Aragua state 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Venezuelan capital Caracas, said AFP.

Interior and Justice Minister Remigio Ceballos told AFP that approximately a thousand individuals had joined the rescue attempts as he worked on the scene.

Locals crawled through the ruins of their homes in search of loved ones, while rescue teams with dogs arrived in the hopes of locating survivors buried in the debris.

A butcher shop that had been closed because of the pandemic and was scheduled to resume on Monday was buried in murky muck that caked the refrigerators and other items inside.

Ramon Arvelo, one of the laborers helping to remove muck, stated, "We were waiting for the meat to be shipped in — to start after two years closed,"

50-year-old Loryis Verenzuela wept as she observed the wreckage and remarked, "I never thought that something of this magnitude could happen; it's a really big deal,"

Record rain

"We have a huge landslide as a result of the changing climate," Ceballos stated, referring to the effects of Hurricane Julia, which had passed just north of Venezuela the previous night.

As he inspected the disaster zone, he continued, "There was a record rainfall," — as much rain fell in one day as is typically observed in one month.

"These strong rains saturated the ground," he remarked.

Images captured by rescue teams' drones depicted massive volumes of soil stacked up in the streets as homeowners attempted to shovel away meters of mud that had entered their homes.

President Nicolas Maduro has announced three days of national mourning for the deceased, and Venezuelans have taken to social media to give aid to the community.

Los Leones, a Venezuelan baseball team, stated that they will arrange a fundraiser for the victims, requesting "non-perishable foods, water and clothes."

The landslide, which was triggered by the largest river flood in the region in thirty years, is the worst so far this year in Venezuela, which has had record rainfall in recent months.

At least 15 people perished in the Venezuelan Andes in August due to mud and rock falls precipitated by severe rainfall.

In September, at least eight people perished after torrential rains flooded a religious retreat in the country's western region.

In 1999, massive landslides north of Caracas killed approximately 10,000 people in the state of Vargas.