Heavy rains in northern Venezuela have caused a landslide that has killed at least three people, President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday while visiting another site last week where over 50 died in similar circumstances.

“I was informed that there are three dead in El Castano, it was a mudslide that came off the mountain,” Maduro said, referring to a neighborhood in Maracay, the capital of northern Aragua state, about 80 kilometers west of El Castano the capital Caracas.

Video footage of El Castano aired on Venezuelan television showed mudslides devastating everything in their path — vehicles, trees and huge boulders blown away.

An AFP team watched the aftermath as emergency workers worked through the night to clear mud and rocks from the road, with lights from vehicles illuminating construction sites as the area remained without power.

Jose Dos Santos, 56, said he took refuge with his family in the highest part of his home.

“I looked at the mountain, it was raining heavily. We heard a roar and when I saw water pouring in through the windows I grabbed my people and we climbed up,” he told AFP.

Roommate Nelida Rodriguez said the landslide was “terrible.”

“I’ve lived here for 70 years and I’ve never seen that before.”

Maduro made the announcement during a speech in Las Tejerias, 65 kilometers east of El Castano, where a landslide a week ago left 54 ??dead, according to the latest figure cited by the president.

In Las Tejerias, “we still have a number of missing persons reported, I’m told 8 are fully confirmed and we’re still searching,” Maduro said of Venezuela’s most devastating natural disaster in the last 20 years.

The President said last week the death toll could reach 100.

Maduro later traveled to El Castano, where he said, “This is all climate change.”

“This year the rain has been very difficult for the whole country.”

Maduro said that 2022 was the worst natural disaster in his nine-and-a-half years in office.

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