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| Sunday, 9 October 2005 |
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Mudslide destroys Guatemala village PANABAJ, Guatemala, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Rescuers pulled 71 bodies from a mudslide in a Guatemalan village, and local officials feared hundreds more may have died in the worst single tragedy from rains that devastated Central America. The mayor of a nearby town said up to 1,000 people may lie buried under the mud, in places 40 feet (12 meters) thick, in the village of Panabaj but that figure could not be confirmed. Outside emergency teams, who only began digging on Friday, two days after an avalanche of mud, rocks and trees engulfed the village, put the possible death toll at 200 people. Firemen in muddied red uniforms carried a child's corpse covered only by a banana plant leaf on a makeshift stretcher of tree branches in Panabaj, in remote highlands next to the lakeside town of Santiago Atitlan. Another rescue worker, his face contorted with grief, carried away a dead toddler wrapped in a plastic bag. "There are no words for this. I have only tears left," said teacher Manuel Gonzalez, whose school was destroyed. At least 282 people were confirmed killed in Central America and southern Mexico by floods and mudslides caused by heavy rains from Hurricane Stan. Hundreds of homes at Panabaj were swallowed when a hillside collapsed in downpours in the early hours of Wednesday. Diego Esquina, the mayor of Solola, a town 10 miles (16 km) across the lake from Panabaj, told Reuters the death toll at Panabaj might be between 500 and 1,000. |
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