Hundreds of families mourn in Peru as children fall victim to dengue outbreak

Death toll mounts in northern Piura region after torrential rain and floods lead to worst ever epidemic

In a stream of white, mourners walked behind an ivory-coloured, shoulder-borne coffin as neighbours, heads bowed and hands clasped, peered out of doorways on the narrow street in Castilla, a middle-class suburb in Piura, northern Peru.

At the gates of the San José de Tarbes school, dozens of girls wearing grey skirts and white shirts with red ties awaited the cortege, holding white balloons and roses. It was a farewell for their schoolmate Priscila Quispe, seven, who died of dengue in the Santa Rosa public hospital last week.