Mudslide hits Guatemala village

Mudslides are common in highland areas in the rainy season

At least seven people have been killed and about a dozen are missing after a landslide buried a small village in western Guatemala.

Homes were either buried or destroyed in the Maya Indian hamlet of Chichicaste after a steep mountain slope collapsed.

Rescue workers have been hampered by the threat of more landslides and say there is little hope of finding any more survivors.

Young children and elderly villagers were reported to be among the dead.

The wave of mud and stones swept over more than 20 houses in the village in the early hours of Wednesday.

"I lost all my children, and all their children," said 72-year-old Juan Ardiano. "The earth shook, my house was almost swept away."

Warnings

Television pictures showed emergency workers clawing through the mud with their bare hands to find the missing villagers.

According to one emergency worker, five children were among the dead.

These are the poorest people in the nation that's what really makes me sad

Governor Graciela Basegoda

Although it was not raining at the time of the landslide, Cocol mountain was known to be unstable after huge cracks had opened up.

Residents of the village told Reuters news agency they had been urged to evacuate the area a while ago but said they were too poor to relocate.

"We had nowhere to go," said Juan Ardiano. "I lived off my cows, and now I'm in the street."

San Marcos State Governor Graciela Basegoda said an estimated 250 people had been left homeless.

"These are the poorest people in the nation, that's what really makes me sad, " she said.