200 still missing from Guatemala volcano eruption

GUATEMALA CITY: Authorities yesterday called off a search for the nearly 200 people missing since Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted earlier this month, devastating the surrounding countryside.

deaths of 110 people as a result of the volcanic eruption on June 3, but another 197 remain unaccounted for.

A spokesman for the government’s civil protection agency, David de Leon, said the agencies involved decided to end the search “due to the fact that the area is uninhabitable and of high risk.”

The volcano, 35 kilometers southwest of the capital, is still generating four or five weak explosions an hour, sending a column of gray ash more than 1,000 meters into the sky.

Guatemala’s south- central region was also shaken on Sunday night by a 5.8- magnitude earthquake with its epicenter at

neighboring El Salvador, the civil protection agency said.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Additionally, rains were forecast for Sunday, posing a danger

More than 3,600 villagers have A handout picture released on Saturday by the Parque Nacional Galapagos, showing the eruption of the La Cumbre volcano at the Fernandina Island, in Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador, on Saturday.

been forced to take temporary refuge in schools and community halls.

The suspended search had been focused on the hardest-hit

communities of San Miguel Los Lotes and El Recreo.

The only exception to the suspension is in the area of Alo- -

two colleagues who went missing on the day of the disaster.