Landslides kill dozens in Guatemala's 'national tragedy'

Heavy rains caused a spate of landslides in Guatemala over the weekend, with dozens of road users and rescuers killed and dozens more missing.

"This is a national tragedy... I am concerned about the loss of human lives and also about economic losses. There are landslides everywhere across the country," President Alvaro Colom said Sunday.

He made the somber remarks at the site of the tragic chain of disasters, which saw a landslide engulf a group of rescuers as they tried to dig out a bus and five other vehicles buried by a previous one Saturday night on the main Inter-American Highway west of the capital.

"A wall of earth fell on a bus, and around 100 local people organized themselves to dig out the victims," said fire department spokesman Sergio Vasquez. "Then another landslide came along and buried them."

Following the tragic incidents, about 150 rescuers rushed to the scene, using shovels, tractors and excavators to try to recover those buried in the mud. At least 22 bodies had been recovered from the deep mud before fresh downpours forced the operation to a halt.

"We do not want to put the rescuers at risk. We have worked hard, but the rain does not stop. There are also thunders and lightning, and there is fog, too. Working under these conditions is almost impossible," said Jose Rodriguez, another fire department spokesman.

With about two dozens of people feared still buried under the earth, the National Disaster Reduction Coordination (Conred) said rescue efforts would resume as soon as the rains began to subside.

Among other deadly calamities, 12 were killed on Saturday when a slurry of mud crushed another bus also on the Inter-American Highway. Twenty survivors were rescued.

The downpours, which state meteorologists said were the heaviest since 1949, caused 200 accidents over the weekend across the Central American country, among which 15 landslides happened along the main highway, official figures showed.