GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - At least 33 people were killed and as many as another 60 were missing after a huge chunk of mountain slid onto the road they were walking on in northern Guatemala on Sunday, officials said.
Hugo Arvizu, a spokesman for disaster relief commission CONRED, told Reuters on Monday the death count had risen to 33 from 22 the previous day and rescue workers were still battling to dig some of those bodies out of the rubble.
Arvizu said reports from villagers in the area pointed to as many as 60 other people being missing.
The massive landslide, triggered by a geological fault, brought some 10 million tonnes of rock crashing down onto the road in a sparsely populated area of Alta Verapaz, around 124 miles (200 km) north of Guatemala City.
The road was closed in December after a smaller rockfall killed two people. The victims of Sunday's collapse were pedestrians who ignored warnings not to use the route, Arvizu said.
"It was prohibited to use the road ... but some people were walking along the route," he said.
Guatemalan Vice President Rafael Espada said on Sunday that continued rockfalls in the area were hampering rescue efforts.
Landslides are common in Guatemala, but usually occur during the rainy season between June and November when hills become waterlogged and unstable.
The lush hillsides of Alta Verapaz department are prime areas for growing coffee and cardamom but a geological fault in the limestone rock formations cuts straight through the area.
(Reporting by Sarah Grainger)
