Rescue attempt over

Guatemala City: Guatemala has ended rescue operations in a stormlashed village where scores of people probably died last week in a huge landslip, the country’s national disaster agency said yesterday.

The site is no longer habitable and will be abandoned.

Storm Eta’s torrential downpours toppled trees, engorged rivers, and ripped down parts of a mountainside above the village of Queja in the central Guatemalan region of Alta Verapaz last week.

Ovidio Choc, mayor of San Cristobal Verapaz, the municipality Queja belongs to, said the area was likely to be declared a cemetery, and the bodies not recovered. — Reuters