LA PAZ – A 10-year-old Bolivian girl saved a baby from drowning as a flood ripped through a mining village north of La Paz and swept away more than 60 rustic dwellings, the press said Friday.

The incident occurred this week in the village of Chima, at some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of La Paz, when the girl, Rosa, saw the 9-month-old baby “floating in her carriage in the waters of the river.”

“I jumped in and grabbed it with one arm and with the other I swam with all my strength and gave it back to her mom,” the girl told the daily La Razon.

The flood swept away some 60 homes standing about 50 meters (165 feet) from the riverbank, and while for the moment no deaths have been reported, 150 families are estimated to have been affected.

The president of the community of Norte Paceño Tropical, Benedicto Veliz, said that after the flooding in Chima a yellow alert was declared in the region to prevent worse disasters.

In March 2003 close to a third of the village of Chima was buried under a mudslide on a slope of Pucaloma mountain, leaving a total of 24 dead, 43 missing, 194 families affected and 53 minors left as orphans. EFE