HURRICANE SIMON AND RACHEL REMNANTS KILL SIX IN MEXICO

Hurricane Simon and the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel have killed at least six people along Mexico's Pacific coast, authorities said. One person died in the southern state of Guerrero, where Governor Evelyn Salgado said a 71-year-old man was killed when a wall collapsed in Chilpancingo. The remaining deaths occurred in and around Ensenada, in Baja California, where flooding linked to Rachel's remnants struck communities near streams and rivers. State prosecutors said the victims included a 13-year-old girl, two women aged 30 and 35, and a four-year-old boy, with a further unidentified body recovered near a stream. Five people remain missing in Baja California, including three in Ensenada and a father and son who went fishing in San Felipe on Saturday and did not return.

Around 300 military personnel, police and rescue workers searched Ensenada's El Pipila stream, while the Mexican Navy continued searching for the missing fishermen, state civil protection authorities said. Floodwaters swept away vehicles, damaged homes and cut off access to some communities. A resident of Ensenada's Buena Vista area, Johana Nuriulu, said the flooding began overnight after heavy rain knocked out electricity, describing a noise "that sounded like ocean waves, but very intense" before a nearby stream overflowed. Mexican soldiers used helicopters to rescue 32 people, including 13 minors, from Rancho Genesis, a camp for orphans staffed by missionaries near Ensenada. The army said 22 of those rescued were foreign nationals, with Baja California Security Secretary General Laureano Carrillo saying they included Americans and Germans.

Hurricane Simon did not make landfall and was reported to have weakened, moving away from the coast, though authorities kept a rain alert in place and warned of waves up to five metres high in some coastal areas. The US National Hurricane Centre said Simon would approach Mexico's west-central coast between Wednesday and Thursday, while national civil protection coordinator Laura Velazquez said Mexican authorities expected it to strike Mazatlan, in Sinaloa, as a Category 1 hurricane. Flooding and landslides were also reported in the states of Michoacan and Colima. Authorities in Nayarit and Sinaloa remained on alert for rising rivers, while Puerto Vallarta reported clear skies after earlier bracing for extreme weather.