Five houses in Tijuana, Baja California, have been deemed unsafe after the ground at the foot of a hillside was destabilized, presumably by an excavation.

One of the affected homeowners saw saw his backyard fall away and tumble down on to a street below in the Los Altos neighborhood on Saturday.

The word among neighbors is that the purchaser of a piece of land at the foot of the hill used a backhoe to remove some material in order to build a garage. The land above has started to give way.

The local Civil Protection office has ordered the evacuation of 33 people — including 12 minors — due to the risk presented by the unstable soil.

Five houses are at significant risk, and will probably be condemned.

Civil Protection chief José Rito Portugal said the landslide has only caused cracks in some houses, but there is a “very high probability” the the entire hillside will collapse due to the weight of the dwellings built on it.

One resident of Los Altos told the newspaper El Universal that “the earth will one day swallow Tijuana,” and he might not be far from the truth.

Saturday’s was the sixth such incident since December 2016, and according to the Civil Protection office, 300 houses have collapsed, affecting almost 750 people.

Source: El Universal (sp)