Death Toll from Guatemala Volcano Rises to 69
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Guatemalan authorities have increased the confirmed death toll from the eruption of the Volcano of Fire to 69 as officials suspended the search until dawn on Tuesday.
Fanuel Garcia, the director of Guatemala's National Institute of Forensic Sciences, announced the higher death toll late Monday. He said only 17 of the dead have been identified so far.
The burning ash and mud that engulfed villages on the volcano's flanks Sunday left many victims unrecognizable. They will have to be identified through DNA testing or other means, AP reported.
A lack of electricity in the most heavily hit zone makes safely searching at night impossible.
Guatemala's disaster agency had raised the death toll from the eruption of the Volcano of Fire to 65.
The agency said in addition that 46 people were injured. Nearly 2,000 people are in shelters and more than 3,200 were evacuated from the areas near the volcano west of Guatemala City.
The volcano erupted Sunday, burying people in ash and searing mud that raced down its flanks.
Few of the bodies have yet been identified because the intense heat left them unrecognizable.
The known death toll for the eruption of Guatemala's Volcano of Fire has taken a sudden jump upward.
The head of the country's disaster agency had previously put the death toll at 33, but warned it would go higher.
Rescuers are using heavy machinery and shovels have found the bodies of at least eight more victims since the last death toll was given at 25.
Disaster agency chief Sergio Cabanas also said Monday that helicopters had rescued 10 people from areas hit by thick ash, mud or lava.
The volcano exploded Sunday, sending ash high into the sky and lava flows cascading into rural hamlets on the mountain's slopes.
Guatemala City's international airport has re-opened after it was closed by falling ash from the eruption of the Volcano of Fire to the west.
The airport's press office says the facility was reopened Monday after ash was cleared from the runway. However, the airport press office says each airline is free to make its own decision about whether to resume flights.
Fine, gritty volcanic ash can damage jet engines.
