Rescue teams search for US mudslide victims

Hundreds of rescue workers slogged through knee-deep ooze and used long poles to probe for bodies as the search dragged on for victims of mudslides which engulfed a Californian town. Seventeen people have been confirmed dead and eight others are still missing in Montecito, officials said. As search dogs clambered on heaps of wood that used to be homes, mud-spattered rescue teams from all over California worked their way through the ruins of Montecito, a community of 9,000 people north-west of Los Angeles that is home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.