Sniffer dogs and rescuers had made another attempt earlier in the day to find people, but only one body has been found in the last three days under mud that is two to three meters (six to 10 feet) deep in some places. The mud reached nearly as high as the backboard of a basketball hoop in the courtyard of a school.

Hundreds of villagers had helped firefighters dig for bodies since Wednesday's mudslide, which tumbled over the hamlets of Panabaj and Tzanchal, burying homes and as many as 1,400 people in this touristic lake region.

"This is a temporary suspension, because you can't work in this terrain," said firefighters' spokesman Mario Cruz. "We are waiting for the government's decision to resume work or declare it a cemetery," which would end the search.

Cruz said earlier there was little hope of finding more bodies and that only 77 had been found so far in Panabaj, including one in the last three days.

A baby was found in Lake Atitlan Monday, he said.

A dozen Spanish firefighters left their base near here to go to another town affected by a mudslide near the Mexican border.

"This should be declared a common grave, it's a cemetery where 1,400 people are buried, by our estimation," said Diego Mendoza, the mayor of Santiago Atitlan, a small community of hamlets and villages 180 kilometers (112 miles) west of Guatemala City, where some 47,000 people live.

The tragedy occurred in the early morning last Wednesday, when a river of mud, following the intense rains from Tropical Storm Stan, poured down the San Lucas volcano and washed away everything in its path, while residents slept in their houses.

The disaster has left at least 652 dead in the whole country, and the toll will surely rise.

There was an official warning of an avalanche by local authorities the night before but most of the local people remained in their flimsy houses either out of fear of abandoning them or convinced that the risk was not that grave.

In some affected areas nothing remains but a marsh of softened mud where a person walking would fall up to their chest in sludge. Townspeople have laid down boards and tree trunks to use as walkways.

Government aid had not arrived as of Sunday because the highways were blocked, although on Monday helicopters began bringing in aid to the area, said Cruz.

He said that several thousand people have begun to receive potable water and rations of rice, beans, coffee and sugar, in six shelters that were set up in school and churches.

Most of the people of Santiago are indigenous, of Huipil ethnicity, descendants of the Mayas, who mainly grow crops and coffee, as well as making gorgeous woven textiles, many for sale to the thousands of tourists who visit the area every year.

Women dressed in traditional garb inspected the area where the disaster struck in search of signs of life.

In the wreckage of the local police station five prisoners died in their cell.

Three cars were dumped in a grocery store by wrath of the storm. The store owner, Antonio Rianda, said he fled on foot in the middle of the night with his wife and three children.

The next day, while cleaning out his house, he found two babies drowned in the mud.

The stone house of Nicolas Xicaj, a 38-year-old peasant, withstood the storm but he lost 30 members of his family, he said. He is still traumatized by that night.

"The sound of it is still rumbling in my head," he said, as a tear trickled down his face.

related report
Guatemala fears huge death toll as hundreds buried in mudslide
by Edgar Calderon Guatemala City, Oct 10 (AFP) - The death toll from devastating mudslides in Guatemala could reach 2,000 as rescuers suspended their search Monday for hundreds of people buried in a muddy tomb.

President Oscar Berger declared three days of mourning for the 652 people confirmed dead in Guatemala since Tropical Storm Stan unleashed unrelenting rains last week that triggered floods and avalanches of mud.

Up to 1,400 people are missing in the communities of Panabaj and Tzanchaj in a lake region 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of Guatemala City.

Guatemalan and Spanish firefighters had little hope of finding survivors as they searched with sniffer dogs five days after the mudslide tumbled down the slopes of San Lucas volcano onto the towns.

"This is a temporary suspension, because you can't work in this terrain," said firefighters' spokesman Mario Cruz. "We are waiting for the government's decision to resume work or declare it a cemetery," which would end the search.

Cruz said earlier that only 77 had been found so far in Panabaj, including just one in the last three days.

The local mayor has asked the central government to declare the devastated area a mass grave.

"If it had been an earthquake, you could hope to find survivors, but here in the mud, I don't think so," said a Spanish firefighter. "It could take a month for it to dry up."

Hundreds of villagers in the Mayan region had flocked to the mudslide since Wednesday to try to dig out their friends, relatives and neighbors.

Geronimo Mendoza, a farmer wearing a straw hat, had carried a shovel on his shoulder as he joined the search effort Monday.

"I had a lot of friends in these homes," said Mendoza, 63. "I want to find their remains to give then a dignified burial."

West of Panabaj and Tzanchaj, officials estimate that hundreds have also disappeared or died.

Several towns were "destroyed" and another 14 were flooded in the southwest, near the Pacific coast, said Santo Domingo Mayor Mario Perez.

Stan slammed the Mexican state of Veracruz Tuesday as a hurricane before being downgraded to a tropical storm.

At least 72 people were killed in El Salvador, 28 in Mexico and 11 in Nicaragua.

The United Nations said it was launching a 22-million-dollar (18.3-million euro) flash appeal to assist victims in Guatemala.

Berger has urged the international community to help his nation of 11.2 million people. Several countries, including Japan, Mexico, Spain, Cuba and Canada, have pledged help for Guatemala.

The US military sent a humanitarian assistance team of 58 over the weekend and eight helicopters to deliver supplies, while US General Bantz Craddock, commander of the Miami-based US Southern Command, arrived in Guatemala on Monday to help coordinate relief efforts.

Some 3.5 million people were affected by the storm in Guatemala, where damage is estimated at 800 million dollars.

In southeastern Mexico, hundreds of farming communities face possible food shortages for months and the loss of entire crops.

Mexican authorities have launched a vaccination drive amid an outbreak of dengue fever in the storm zone.

Mexican President Vicente Fox estimated that rebuilding broken bridges, homes and other infrastructure in his country would cost 1.8 billion dollars.

"It is urgent that funds flow rapidly" to the affected areas, Fox said.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, has been one of the deadliest and most active on record. Stan was the 10th Atlantic hurricane this year.

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