Eight buried alive as mudslide hits bus

Guatemala City, Sep 5 (IANS/EFE) A passenger bus was buried in a mudslide triggered by torrential rains in Guatemala, killing at least eight people and injuring 25.

“It has been pretty difficult to recover the victims because of the tonnes of mud that fell on the bus,” a spokesperson for the volunteer firefighters said Saturday.

Witnesses said that part of the hill near the Kilometre 83 region on the Inter-American highway broke away and came down as a mudslide just as the bus was passing by.

Another mudslide in Colomba town in Quetzaltenango province, about 230 km from Guatemala City, killing two of its occupants, while three others were reported missing.

Torrential rains in Guatemala since Thursday have soaked the land with so much water that they have caused over 30 mudslides in different parts of the country, according to civil protection authorities.

The downpours have caused many rivers to overflow and destroyed bridges, created holes in highways and destroyed crops.

–IANS/EFE