62 dead, 13 identified as 'Volcano of Fire' erupts in Guatemala

At least 62 people have died after Guatemala's "Volcano of Fire" erupted, spewing lava into a village and sending smoke and ash billowing into the sky.

Head of Guatemala's National Forensic Sciences Institute said that 62 dead in volcano eruption, 13 of them identified, reports The Associated Press.

He said four people had died when lava set a house on fire and two children were killed while standing on a bridge watching the eruption.

David de Leon, spokesman for Guatemala's disaster management agency, said several more bodies had been recovered in the rubble of villages on the volcano's southern flank, which bore the brunt of the disaster. The previous toll was 25.

Authorities had warned the death toll could rise as a number of people had been reported missing. De Leon said some 1.7 million people had been affected when the volcano erupted on Sunday, shooting a dense cloud of ash into the sky and sending a hail of fiery rock fragments and scalding mud down the mountainside, burying homes.

Fuego has been erupting since 2002, and was continuously active in 2017. There were explosions and ash plumes on May 19-21 as well as a volcanic mudflow on May 17. The last emergency occurred in September 2012, causing the evacuation of some 10,000 people from villages on its slopes.

(with PTI inputs)