At Least 25 Dead & Nearly 300 Injured Following Volcano Eruption In Guatemala

Cabanas said that the dead included a civil protection official.

A lack of electricity in the most heavily hit zone makes safely searching at night impossible.

The country’s disaster agency “never told us to leave”.

The agency says in addition that 46 people were injured.

Conred disaster agency of Guatemala’s general secretary, Sergio Cabanas said in a statement given on radio that, “It’s a river of lava that overflowed its banks and affected the Rodeo village”.

The Volcano of Fire spews molten rock from its crater in Alotenango, Guatemala.

We’d located the body of the missing person and were going to retrieve it when the activity of the volcano increased quite suddenly.

Fanuel Garcia said Monday that only 13 of those bodies have so far been identified.

The ZAKA team is now working with search-and-rescue emergency forces in the disaster area, offering assistance to the hundreds of people affected by the eruption.

Searing flows of ash mixed with water and debris gushed down the volcano’s flanks, blocking roads and burning homes.

Workers were cleaning ash off the runways to get the airport operating again. There were explosions and ash plumes and a volcanic mudflow last month.

“The toll was 25 dead as of 9pm (1pm AEST)”, the spokesman for the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred) said in a WhatsApp group.

Some residents told local news outlets they were unaware they were in direct danger because government officials failed to warn them in time.

But by that time, he says, “the lava was already here”. Firefighters reported being unable to reach people trapped in areas cut off by the lava.

In addition, there are 46 people injured, majority seriously, more than 1.7 million being hit by the disaster, including 3,271 ordered evacuated and 1,787 in shelters in the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango since the eruption on Sunday, June 3.

Guatemala’s main airport was forced to close.

One of Central America’s most active volcanoes, the conical Volcan de Fuego reaches an altitude of 3763 metres above sea level at its peak.

By Monday, the intense activity had subsided, Conred said. It is the deadliest eruption in Guatemala since 1902, when the Santa Maria volcano killed at least 5,000 people.

Already on location at the scene are 45 Guatemalan first responders who were trained earlier this year by Israeli volunteer rescue and recovery organization ZAKA.

Guatemala was one of the few countries to side with the United States after President Donald Trump’s December recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with decades of USA diplomacy and global consensus. The Palestinians seek its eastern sector as capital of their hoped-for state. It is a stratovolcano, like Mount St Helens, with viscous lava that allows gas pressures to build and leads to more explosive eruptions. Seven deaths were confirmed previously.

At least 20 people were injured, and authorities have said they fear the death toll could rise with an undetermined number of people unaccounted for.

Guatemala’s Volcan de Fuego erupted Sunday, and satellites were able to capture the powerful explosion.

In another video, it is shown how fast the pyroclastic flows actually moves as bystanders are taken by surprise and have to flee to safety as the flow barrels towards them through a ravine.