THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS TRY TO ESCAPE CROCODILES INFESTED FLOODS IN MEXICO

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Thousands of exhausted, hungry and increasingly despondent tourists lined up late into the night on a muddy road outside a military base for a chance to get home on one of two precious air bridges out of this famed beach resort isolated by landslides set off by Tropical Storm Manuel. 

Storms that hit Mexico have left 80 people dead across Mexico, with residents in Acapulco facing looters and crocodile-infested floodwater. 

Tens of thousands of people have been trapped in the aftermath of two tropical storms that hammered vast swathes of the country with more than 1million people affected.  

In the resort city of Acapulco, residents were forced to wade through waist-high water. However, many were put off venturing out after pictures showed a crocodile on the loose which was spotted thrashing its tail in floodwater in the city centre. 

Roads and bridges were destroyed outside Acapulco after tropical storm Manuel hit the Pacific coast of Mexico over the weekend, while Hurricane Ingrid battered the Gulf coast on Monday.
 

• It warned heavy rain from the storm will trigger further flash-flooding and mudslides in the states of Sinaloa, Nayarit and southern Baja in California. 
• Mexico's federal Civil Protection Co-ordinator Luis Felipe Puente said 35,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed. 
• Officials said there were at least 58 people missing after a landslide in mountains north of Acapulco late on Wednesday night. Some 5,300 people were flown out of Acapulco on 49 flights on Wednesday, but an estimated 55,000 tourists remain stranded. 

Source: Agency