CARACAS: At least 22 people have been killed and more than 50 missing after a landslide in a river in central Venezuela, in the latest deadly disaster triggered by heavy rains in the country.

Officials gave this information on Sunday. Unusually heavy rains have killed dozens of people in the troubled South American country in recent months.

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Vice President Delcy Rodriguez addressed the media at the scene in the city of Las Tejerias and said, "We are seeing very significant damage here, human damage: so far, we have already found 22 dead and over 52 people missing." We are still looking for these people."

The city's streets were littered with mud and debris, including scattered wood, household items and damaged cars, as well as destroyed homes and businesses and fallen trees.

"The community is lost. The city of Las Tejerias, located in the state of Aragua, is 50 kilometers (30 mi) from the capital Caracas, and, according to 55-year-old resident Carmen Melendez, is "lost". He has lived there his entire life.

As he worked at the scene, the Minister of the Interior and Justice Remigio Ceballos reported that about a thousand people had joined the rescue efforts.

When the search team with dogs reached the spot, the local people took out the debris of the damaged houses in search of the deceased family members.

Ceballos said, referring to the effects of Hurricane Julia, which passed north of Venezuela last night: "We have a large landmass as a result of the changing climate."

As he looked at the disaster area, he continued, "There had been a record amount of rain - the amount of rain typically seen in one day in a month.

"These heavy rains saturated the ground," he said. As residents tried to pull out a meter of mud flowing into their homes, images taken by drones used by rescue teams showed massive amounts of mud piling up on the streets.

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Venezuelans took to social media to support the city during three days of national mourning, announced by President Nicolas Maduro in memory of the victims.

The Los Leones baseball team in Caracas announced that they would be holding a donation campaign requesting "non-perishable foods, water and clothing" for the victims.

The landslide, triggered by the region's biggest river flood in 30 years, is Venezuela's worst landslide this year. The country has recently experienced historically high rainfall levels.

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In August, at least 15 people were killed when mud and rock erupted in the Venezuelan Andes due to heavy rains.
And in September, a religious retreat in the west of the country was flooded with heavy rain, resulting in the deaths of at least eight people.

A massive landslide in the state of Vargas, north of Caracas, claimed the lives of about 10,000 people in 1999.