Rescuers search for missing in deadly Guatemala trash slide
GUATEMALA CITY – Hundreds of rescuers picked through a Guatemalan garbage dump Thursday looking for bodies or possible survivors a day after a massive slope of trash collapsed, killing at least four people.
The National Civil Police reported that 18 people may still be missing, while Guatemala’s national disaster response agency put the figure at five.
Dozens of people seeking loved ones who were unaccounted for were also at the scene.
Marta Julia Davila, 21, said her 60-year-old grandfather, Hugo Leonel Perez Alonzo, works as a “guajero,” or garbage picker, who looks for recyclable materials. Perez’s family had not seen him since before the slide, and workers reported that he was last spotted sitting down in the area where the collapse happened, she added.
“We are sure he is there because yesterday he left for work and last night he did not return to his home,” Davila said. “There are a lot of people buried.”
Recent rains may have contributed to the slope’s collapse.
Authorities say about 1,000 people worked in that area of the dump and had been asked to evacuate after an earlier slide, but some resisted.
About 3,000 tons of garbage from the capital and surrounding areas are handled daily at the dump.
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