Hundreds search for mudslides victims

Hundreds of rescue workers slogged through kneedeep 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 were confirmed dead and eight others were still missing in Montecito, officials said.

Santa Barbara County authorities sent a shudder through the community early yesterday when they reported the number of people unaccounted for had surged from 16 to 48.

However, later in the morning they said they had made a clerical error and the actual number of missing was down to eight.

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, an enclave of 9,000 people north-west of Los Angeles home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey. It was left covered with thick muck, boulders, wrecked cars, splintered lumber and tree limbs.