A blizzard has snowed in hundreds of people in the mountains on the border between Chile and Argentina. On Sunday, more than 400 people, mostly tourists and truck drivers, were stuck on a mountain pass at temperatures of minus 10 degrees, local authorities said.
On the Argentine side of the border, 120 people were rescued by the police and military early in the morning. 200 people were still stuck there. According to the police, more than 200 people in Chile were unable to continue their journey because of the snowstorm.
The storm started on Saturday after a sudden wind shift. Hundreds of vehicles were snowed in on a connecting road between Argentina and Chile in a foothill of the Andes at an altitude of 3000 meters. “There were cars that couldn’t continue their journey because of the fog and couldn’t even open the doors to get out,” Héctor Tello, a Las Heras municipality official, told C5N.
The Los Libertadores border crossing has been closed by the authorities. “There are temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius below zero and more than a meter of snow has accumulated on the roads,” Tello continued. Accordingly, the border police provide those affected with warm water and food.
