"We have 29 people confirmed dead and one still not confirmed," said Sergio Cabanas, incident commander of Guatemala's National Disaster Mitigation Coordination (CONRED).
CONRED announced earlier Friday that the number of missing people might reach up to 600, based on estimates of destroyed houses. Local families have estimated that about 20 families, or around 100 people, are missing.
The landslide occurred on Thursday night following heavy rains in the El Cambray II neighborhood of the town of Santa Catarina Pinula, 15 km south of the capital, according to daily newspaper Prensa Libre.
Hundreds of rescue workers dug through sludge and rocks to find survivors. Thirty-six people had been pulled out from the mud and debris and rushed to hospital.
Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
3/10/15
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Hundreds feared dead in Guatemala landslide, hopeful keep digging ...
ReplyDeleteHopes faded of finding any remaining survivors of a massive landslide in Guatemala that killed at least 73 people, even as families scrabbled through rubble hoping to find the bodies of loved-ones, with hundreds of others still missing.
Distraught relatives of the victims shoveled alongside diggers through the mounds of earth that destroyed homes in Santa Catarina Pinula on the southeastern flank of Guatemala City after the collapse of a hillside on Thursday night.
Every fresh batch of earth turned up by the diggers held more personal belongings, from mattresses and books to toys and Christmas decorations, reminders of around 350 people who authorities said were still unaccounted for.
Clutching photos of loved-ones, family members stood in line outside a makeshift morgue near the excavation site, some of them crying, to see if they recognized any corpses.
"This is the worst thing that has happened to us," said Ana Maria Escobar, a 48-year-old housewife, sobbing as she waited for news of 21 missing family members who lived in the town that she had left only a year ago.
"So far only my sister-in-law has been found," she added...........REUTERS.......todayonline.com
4/8/15