A French organisation which campaigns against anti-personnel landmines says that tens of thousands of mines have been dislodged in Nicaragua by the floods.

The organisation, Handicap International, said maps show that many of the devices, planted in the 1980s during Nicargua's civil war, were located near roads and river banks which have now been washed away.

The organisatoin fears that the mines will now be increasingly difficult to find and de-activate.

The French authorities are sending six explosives experts to help assess the dangers posed by the mines.