In the worst disaster, a mudslide surged into a community in Chiapas state Wednesday, killing 16 people and injuring 13, while another avalanche claimed three lives in the nearby town of Angel Albino Corzo, federal officials said.

Heavy rains have beleaguered much of Mexico's south for weeks.

Another landslide Thursday morning in the town of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag in Oaxaca state buried an 80-year-old man and his 68-year-old wife, said Mayor Onesimo Cuevas.

He said relatives and neighbors recovered the bodies themselves after the slide, which came when a rain-drenched hillside collapsed on their home.

The couple's death came two days after a huge mudslide roared down a hill another Oaxaca town, touching off a scare that hundreds of people might have been lost. Officials later lowered the likely death toll to 11 in Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec.

AP