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At least 30 people have died and up to 600 people are feared missing after a hillside collapsed on a town in Guatemala, burying more than 100 homes.
Aerial video showed the tree-lined hillside laid bare above a huge mound of earth, foliage and debris that completely covered part of the town of Santa Catarina Pinula – about 15km east of the capital, Guatemala City.
Many hundreds of rescue workers and volunteers were helping sift the rubble in search of survivors until late on Saturday night – when, exhausted, they called off their operation until dawn this morning.
An improvised morgue has been established close to the scene, and three babies are among the dead.
Nehemias Gonzalez – who was at work when the landslide hit – lost his 21-year-old wife and two-year-old daughter.
He said: “The last thing she said when I called her on the telephone in the afternoon was that she loved me.”
Melina Hidalgo, 35, was washing clothes when the landslide struck.
She said there was a loud crash and the lights went out before the houses around her were covered in soil and mud.
“I feel like I’ve lost my loved ones because all my neighbours died,” she said.
About 150 families had lived in the area where the mudslide occurred – and one 25-year-old, her face swollen from weeping, told reporters how she feared her uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews were trapped under the rubble.
“Six houses where my relatives lived are all under the hillside now,” Marleni Pu added.
Marta Guitz arrived home to find her home buried – and she has been unable to reach her teenage boy, who she believes was inside when the disaster struck.
“My husband is there now, shovelling through soil to find our son,” the 37-year-old said.
The landslide is one of the worst since October 20005, when heavy rainfall triggered a devastating landslide in southwestern Guatemala.
Hundreds of people are believed to have died, but the bodies of many missing residents have never been recovered.
Courtesy of Sky News
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