Guatemala landslide death toll climbs to 69

At least 69 people were killed when massive mudslides buried scores of homes on the outskirts of Guatemala’s capital city, officials said, as the death toll continued to climb. An estimated 300 people were still missing, two days after the landslides suddenly hit, raising the prospect that the number of people who perished in the disaster could rise much higher. Julio Sanchez, a spokesman for firefighters who are leading the painstaking search for survivors, told reporters that several young children, including newborn babies, were among the dead in Santa Catarina Pinula. On Thursday night, following heavy rain, waterlogged earth and debris tore through the village of El Cambray II, in the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula, destroying or damaging 125 homes. At dawn Saturday, rescue workers, police, soldiers and volunteers began a second day of clawing away at the debris with picks and shovels. Two firefighters were injured later in the day when a wall collapsed as they were trying to extract a body from the rubble. Nearby, relatives of the missing checked in at a makeshift morgue set up next to the buried homes.