CARACAS – Caracas firefighters on Wednesday found the bodies of the last two people missing from a mudslide in the Venezuelan capital, emergency management chief Luis Diaz said.

The bodies are those of a 47-year-old man and a 5-year-old boy, both members of a family of three adults and four children who were buried by a mudslide triggered by the torrential rains that fell in the area, Diaz told state television.

The other five bodies were recovered Tuesday after firefighters dug through tons of earth and rocks.

Firefighters were unable to use heavy equipment because of the site’s condition, Diaz said.

The mudslide occurred in an area on the edges of Caracas, heading toward the coast, characterized by steep slopes and unstable soil.

Numerous dwellings have been constructed in the area, providing housing for some of the poorest people in the country.

Officials ordered residents to evacuate before the mudslide occurred, “but they did not want to leave and their response was: ‘If they give me the key to another house, I’ll go,” and, as you know, we can’t have a house for each one,” Capital District chief Jacqueline Farias said Tuesday.

Some residents have been taken to temporary shelters and will receive houses “that will be built in a period of approximately two months,” the mayor of the city of Libertador, Jorge Rodriguez, said. EFE