At least 48 die in Guatemala earthquake
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Guatemala, killing at least 48 people in two states.
It toppled thick adobe walls, shook huge landslides on to highways, and sent terrified villagers streaming into the streets of San Marcos, an idyllic mountain town near the border with Mexico.
One hundred people were missing and hundreds injured.
The quake, which hit at 10.35am yesterday, caused terror over an unusually wide area, with damage reported in all but one of Guatemala’s 22 states and shaking felt as far away as Mexico City, 600 miles to the north west.
President Otto Perez Molina said 40 people died in the state of San Marcos and eight more were killed in the neighbouring state of Quetzaltenango.
San Marcos, where more than 30 homes collapsed, bore the brunt of the temblor’s fury.
More than 300 people, including firefighters, policemen and villagers, tried to dig through a half ton of sand at a quarry in the commercial centre of town in a desperate attempt to rescue seven people believed buried alive. Among those under the sand was a six-year-old boy who had accompanied his grandfather to work.
Mr Perez flew to San Marcos to view the damage in the lush mountainous region of 50,000 indigenous farmers and ranchers, many belonging to the Mam ethnic group.
“One thing is to hear about what happened and another thing entirely is to see it,” he said. “As a Guatemalan I feel sad … to see mothers crying for their lost children.”
The president said the government would pay for the funerals of all victims in the impoverished region.
Efrain Ramos helped load a tiny coffin carrying the body of his six-year-old niece from San Marcos’ mortuary to a waiting pick-up truck.
“The little girl died when a wall fell over her,” a shocked Mr Ramos told a reporter. He said the girl was playing in her room when the quake hit.
In the town of San Cristobal Cochu, firefighters were trying to dig out 10 members of one family, including a four-year-old child, who were buried when their house collapsed, fire department spokesman Ovidio Perez said.
Many of the colourful adobe buildings in the 10-square-mile centre of San Marcos were either cracked or reduced to rubble, including the police station and the court. The temblor left a large gash in one of the streets and hundreds of frightened villagers stood in the open, refusing to go back inside.
Hundreds of people crammed into the hallways of the small town hospital waiting for medical staff to help injured family members, some complaining they were not getting care quickly enough.
The quake, which was 20 miles deep, was centred 15 miles off the coastal town of Champerico and 100 miles south west of Guatemala City. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Guatemala since a 1976 temblor that killed 23,000.
Officials said most of 100 missing were from San Marcos. The mainly indigenous inhabitants farm corn and herd cattle, mostly for their own survival.
Hospital officials in San Marcos said they had received 150 injured.
“I’ve been in Guatemala for almost two years and I am used to earthquakes. This was a lot more severe, a lot more shaky,” said Peace Corps volunteer Adam Baker, 27, of Carmel, Indiana, who tweeted a picture of a small landslide behind his house in the nearby state of Quetzaltenango. “Things fell in my kitchen.”
Mr Perez said more than 2,000 soldiers were deployed from a base in San Marcos to help with the disaster. A plane had already made two trips to carry relief teams to the area.
The president urged people to stay put as emergency crews tried to reach victims on the few roads not blocked by landslides or debris. He also encouraged people in the affected areas to stay outside and away from tall buildings.
David de Leon, spokesman for civil protection, said officials were working on evacuations and relief. There were five strong aftershocks by last night.
Mr Perez said 150 people had been evacuated by air from the San Marcos area, where 91 inmates, including five women, were huddled to one side of the adobe makeshift jail that had floor-to-ceiling cracks and threatened to collapse. Police told the prisoners they were to be moved.
The country’s minister of communications and infrastructure said landslides had blocked several highways in the west of the country and it would take at least 24 hours to re-establish transport links to San Marcos.
A spokesman for El Salvador’s Red Cross branch said the quake had been felt throughout the country, sending people fleeing their homes in the capital, but there had been no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage.
The mayor of Mexico City said no serious damage or injuries were reported, although many people fled offices and homes during the quake.
