As Hurricane Odile swirls menacingly towards Mexico, waves pound the shores of Cabo San Lucas. - AFP
CABO SAN LUCAS - The death toll from Hurricane Odile rose to three after the body of a second South Korean man was found floating in a harbor in Mexico's Los Cabos resort.
Authorities also reported that two British citizens were missing, five days after Odile tore across the northwestern Baja California peninsula causing widespread damage to hotels and neighborhoods.
The 58-year-old South Korean mining executive's body was recovered one day after his colleague was found dead from drowning, prosecutors said in a statement.
The two men were trying to drive a car across a stream when they were swept away by floods earlier this week. A German man died of a heart attack in a boat.
Helicopters were deployed to search for a Scottish man and woman whose boat apparently sank, said state tourism secretary Ruben Reachi Lugo.
"We are aware that two British nationals have been reported missing off the coast of Mexico," the British foreign office told AFP in a statement.
"We are in touch with local authorities and are providing consular assistance to the families at this difficult time," it said without providing the missing people's names.
The hurricane stranded 30,000 tourists in Los Cabos after roads and airports were damaged. An airlift has evacuated 18,000 of them since Tuesday amid looting in the municipality.
The US State Department said it chartered four flights that ferried more than 500 US citizens out of Los Cabos in the past 24 hours while the embassy said most Americans had left.
Another 41 Americans traveled in a US Air Force cargo plane that took them to Los Angeles, the Pentagon said, adding that it was not foreseeing more flights.
While Odile has dissipated across the US border, Tropical Storm Polo churned off Mexico's southwest coast and was expected to pass south of Baja on Saturday, bringing more rain and swells to the peninsula, the US National Hurricane Center said. - AFP
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