Guatemala volcano explodes again, evacuations ordered

World
Europe

Guatemala’s Fuego volcano exploded again on Tuesday, as the death toll from the weekend’s eruption rose to at least 73, with a total of 192 people remaining missing, civil protection officials said Tuesday.

National disaster agency Conred ordered evacuations and said that hot gas and molten rock were streaming from the volcano, which produced its biggest eruption in more than four decades on Sunday, showering ash on a wide area and sending lava flows through nearby towns.

Seven communities were evacuated as the volcano's activity increased, with rescue operations halted. In the city of Escuintla, near the summit, panicked locals rushed to their cars to escape, causing chaotic traffic.

Displaced people travel on a motorcycle from an area affected by the eruption of Fuego volcano in Escuintla, Guatemala June 5, 2018. /VCG Photo

The eruption on Sunday sent columns of ash and smoke 10 km into the sky, dusting several regions with ash. More than 1.7 million people had been affected by the disaster, including more than 3,000 ordered evacuated, many living in shelters in Escuintla, Conred said.

The search for bodies in mountain villages destroyed by the eruption was progressing slowly, officials had said earlier, given the nature of the terrain and the way the volcano released large amounts of boiling mud, rock and ash down the mountain. "We will continue until we find the last victim and probe the area as many times as necessary," Sergio Cabanas, head of the disaster management agency, said.

"We now have an accounting with names and towns where people have gone missing and we have a figure, which is 192 people who we have unaccounted for," Cabanas said.

However, the prospects of finding any more survivors was poor, he said. "If you are trapped in a pyroclastic flow, it's hard to come out of it alive," he said, adding that people who may have been caught in the flow may never be found.

The latest of the 73 victims was a 42-year-old woman who died in hospital having lost both legs and an arm in the eruption.

13363km

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters