More than five thousand people and two thousand cars and lorries were stranded 6,000 to 10,000 feet (3,000 to 4,500 metres) up in the Peruvian Andes earlier this week, after landslides blocked mountain roads.

Peruvian Government officials emphasised that none of the trapped passengers were in danger, and said that most of them had sought shelter in mountain villages.

Many mountain families have been made homeless by the slides, and damage to crops and property has not yet been estimated.