Guatemala landslide leaves 30 dead, hundreds missing

More than 500 rescue workers, police and soldiers, as well as desperate residents, clawed away at the debris with picks and shovels searching for survivors all day and into the late evening, before suspending the painstaking hunt for the night.

Families reported receiving text messages from people they believed to still be trapped, more than 24 hours after the landslide struck the village of El Cambray II, in the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula.

Authorities said that about 600 people are missing and they expect the death toll to rise. Their estimate is based on the 125 homes that Thursday’s landslide destroyed or damaged after heavy rain.

The affected area is about 15 kilometers (10 miles) east of the capital Guatemala City.

“We have 29 dead people identified and one still unidentified,” Sergio Cabanas, incident commander for the government’s disaster reduction office CONRAD, said. The victims include at least three children.

Thirty-four people were pulled out alive from the mud and <g data-gr-id="44">rubble,</g> while 25 others were injured, CONRAD officials said. The impact of the heavy rain was exacerbated by a nearby river, officials said. Municipal authorities had urged the community several times to relocate, most recently in November last year.

Amid the debris Josue Coloma, a 40-year-old <g data-gr-id="39">mechanic,</g> anxiously looked on as a rescue crew dug through the mud searching for any sign of his two nephews, ages 11 and 14.

“My nephews should be in the place where I’m standing,” Coloma said. “I have trust in God that they are well.”

Two other relatives who were with the kids at the time of the landslide were pulled out alive, Coloma <g data-gr-id="42">said,</g> while their parents survived because they were out of the house at a religious service.

“The rescue job is very difficult because of the terrain — it’s <g data-gr-id="36">practically</g> as if it were a mountain,” said Cecilio Chacaj, a rescuer with a local firefighter unit.

Soon after Chacaj spoke he pulled out a survivor from the debris.

President Alejandro Maldonado said that several countries, including the United States and Cuba, had offered to help.