MEXICO CITY, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Hurricane Norbert killed three people as it swept over Mexico, pelting rain and swelling rivers after tearing across the Baja California peninsula, police said on Sunday.

The victims drowned in a river near the town of Alamos in the northern state of Sonora after Norbert hit the agricultural region as a Category 1 hurricane late on Saturday with sustained winds as high as 85 mph (140 kph), police said in a statement.

Civil protection workers had evacuated hundreds of people from mountainous areas prone to mudslides and near the banks of normally dry river beds at risk of flash floods.

Two more people were missing in the area, police said.

It was the Norbert's second landfall after earlier pummeling the Baja California peninsula as a stronger Category 2 hurricane, blowing roofs off buildings and knocking down trees.

Low-income Mexicans are often reluctant to abandon their homes because of fears that expensive belongings like televisions and refrigerators will be looted while they are away.

Norbert has since weakened to a tropical depression. (Reporting by Luis Rojas, editing by Philip Barbara)

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