Hope fading for survivors in Guatemala landslide

Hopes are fading in Guatemala of finding more survivors following a landslide that has killed at least 131 people and left 300 missing.

Rescuers have dug for days in the village of Cambray near the capital, but say some of the homes they have reached are filled with water.

Tons of rain-sodden soil slid off a mountain on Thursday, burying houses.

Bulldozers were used to speed up the work but no survivor had been found over the weekend.

Rescuer reported that the smell of rotting bodies was spreading across the mound of earth that had buried the village.

About 30 people have been rescued. Burials began to take place of those brought out of the disaster zone over the weekend.

Alejandro Maldonado, the head of the Guatemalan disaster agency told the BBC the communities had been told the area was high risk and should have been removed by the local authorities,

" We have here a very steep hillside of over 35% inclination which is very high risk for the community and should have been avoided. "

"Other factors are the river that runs at the base is eroding the support for the hill, it is very sandy material and we also have several illegal sewage discharges which weakened further the hillside causing collapse."

The rescue authorities said they were following international protocols which recommended 72 hours of search and rescue.

That period ended on Sunday night but spokesmen said their teams were prepared to continue to try to find the victims of the landslide.

Pope Francis and the presidents of Mexico and Spain have sent their condolences to the families of the missing.

Although Guatemala has had larger landslides, they have been in rural areas with far fewer victims.