25 dead as most violent volcanic eruption in more than four decades hits Guatemala

An estimated 25 people, including at least three children, were killed and nearly 300 injured on Sunday as river of lava struck a village in Guatemala. Volcan de Fuego, which means "Volcano of Fire", spewed an eight-kilometer stream of red hot lava and belched a thick plume of black smoke and ash that rained onto the capital and other regions. The eruption is the most violent of Guatemala's Fuego volcano in more than four decades, officials said.

Charred bodies of victims laid on the steaming, ashen remnants of a pyroclastic flow as rescuers attended to badly injured victims in the aftermath of the eruption. It was the volcano's second eruption this year. A British man who climbed a neighbouring peak the day before the eruption said he feels "fortunate" to have escaped harm.
"It's a river of lava that overflowed its banks and affected the El Rodeo village. There are injured, burned and dead people," Sergio Cabanas, the general secretary of Guatemala's CONRED national disaster management agency, said on radio.

 CONRED said the number of dead had risen to 25, from an earlier estimate of seven, including a CONRED employee. About 3,100 people have been evacuated from the area.