Seventeen bodies had been recovered since a hillside came crashing on the remote gold prospecting town Sunday and many more residents were feared dead. A total of 24 people were injured.

Officials at a nearby hospital said 86 people were listed as missing and feared dead, though authorities said the number of people buried under landslide could be as high as 400.

Authorities say about 40 percent of the town was covered by the mudslide, including a public market and a bus terminal.

Through much of the night, residents used their bare hands, picks and shovels to dig through the mud, much the same way they do when prospecting for gold in the hill that dominates the city of 3,000.

Because of difficult access, help has been slow in coming to the northern Bolivian town, but heavy equipment was eventually brought in after a 15 hour slog along a treacherous, narrow road from the capital La Paz, 250 kilometers (160 miles) away.

Excavators were notably used on the banks of the Tipuani river where residents fear numerous children who had been panning for gold, were buried by the landslide.

French and Spanish rescue teams, with search dogs and specialized equipment, were expected to join the efforts, but hopes of finding further survivors were fading fast.

About 100 soldiers, who lack training for this kind of mission, have been deployed to assist in the search.

Rescue and relief operations should speed up once a regular air bridge, using a military Hercules C-130 and four helicopters, is set up.

Poor weather had earlier prevented helicopters or airplanes from reaching the remote northern town.

Located in Bolivia's subtropical lowlands, Chima is so small that most maps do not show it.

The town sits on the side of a 300-meter (1,000-foot) hill which was hard hit by heavy rains late last week, causing the hillside to come crashing down onto the town.

The hill is pocked with excavations made by small-scale gold diggers leaving it especially prone to landslides.

Some residents have blamed the Chima Ltd mining cooperative for the disaster, saying it had been using dynamite to dig for gold. Others say they believe the devil was behind the disaster because, they believe, miners did not offer him sacrifices.

Failing to make the sacrifices "unleashed death in the mining town," said Hermann Enriquez, from the neighboring town of Tipuani.

The disaster was the worst in memory in Chima, whose full name in the indigenous Aymara language is Chima Jaukata, or "punished place."

For many residents of the town, gold-digging is the only means of survival in a country that ranks poorest in South America.

The landslide cut off telephone links with the capital, and it was not until Monday noon that residents managed to make radio contact with La Paz to request assistance. Many injured were taken to hospital in Tipuani.

SPACE.WIRE