At least 25 dead in Guatemala eruption
RESCUERS FIGHT TO SAVE LIVES
A FIERY volcanic eruption in Guatemala has sent lava flowing into rural communities, killing at least 25 as rescuers struggled to reach people where homes and roads were charred and blanketed with ash.
The death toll rose late on Sunday with 18 bodies found in the community of San Miguel Los Lotes, disaster agency spokesman David de Leon said, adding to the seven victims previously confirmed elsewhere earlier in the day.
At least 20 people were injured, and authorities have said they feared the death toll could rise with an undetermined number of people unaccounted for.
The Volcan de Fuego, or “Volcano of Fire”, exploded in a hail of ash and molten rock, blanketing nearby villages in heavy ash and later lava began flowing down the mountain’s flank and across homes and roads.
Eddy Sanchez, director of the country’s seismology and volcanology institute, said the flows reached temperatures of about 700C (1,300F). Dramatic video showed a fast-moving lahar, or flow of pyroclastic material and slurry, slamming into and partly destroying a bridge on a road between Sacatepequez and Escuintla.
Sacatepezuez television published images of a charred landscape where the lava came into contact with homes. Three bodies lay partially buried in ash-coloured debris from the volcano, which lies about 27 miles from Guatemala City. “Not everyone was able to get out. I think they ended up buried,” Consuelo Hernandez, a resident of the village of El Rodeo, told the newspaper Diario de Centroamer- ica. Hundreds of rescue workers, including firefighters, police and soldiers, worked to help any survivors and recover any more bodies amid the still-smoking lava.