Watch: Girl caught in mudslide in Peru

Dramatic video has emerged of a young girl almost being swept away by a raging mudslide in Peru.

The footage shows a mud-covered piglet and cow also struggling to cope with the unforgiving torrent in the district of Punta Hermosa, south of captial city Lima.

The girl was eventually saved from being dragged by the heaving brown mass and was rescued.

Peru has suffered from heavy rain and flooding since the beginning of the year.

A bus travelling through a mudslide in the northeastern Peruvian region of Ancash, located 537km to the north-east of Lima, fell in a ravine, resulting in the death of 18, including five children.

The tragedy took place amid ongoing struggles in Peru to survive heavy rains and flash floods that are following the Andean country's worst drought in decades.

Striking images also caught one bus swerving past a landslide next to a mountainside close to Lima over the weekend.

It took rescuers almost 20 hours to recover the bodies from the Ancash crash due poor accessibility after the bus plunged 500m down a ravine. Poor visibility due to the ongoing rains also hampered rescue efforts.

In Piura province, located 858km to the northeast of Lima, more than 35,000 were displaced by floods due to heavy rainfall.

Deployments have included more than 3000 brigade members of the Armed Forces and the ministries of Health, Housing and Transportation. According to local media reports, more than 700 tonnes of humanitarian aid were distributed in various areas of Piura.

- additional reporting Reuters