Peru floods kill 67 and spark criticism of country's climate change preparedness

Devastating downpour, caused by high ocean temperatures, could not have been predicted, president said, months after state of emergency declared for wildfires

Sixty-seven people have been killed and thousands more forced to evacuate by intense rains which damaged 115,000 homes and destroyed more than 100 bridges in Peru's worst floods in recent memory.

"We are confronting a serious climatic problem," said Peru's president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, in a broadcast to the nation on Friday afternoon. "There hasn't been an incident of this strength along the coast of Peru since 1998."