Guatemala earthquake kills at least 45

SAN MARCOS, Guatemala -- A 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Guatemala yesterday, killing at least 45 people as it toppled thick adobe walls, shook huge landslides down onto highways and sent terrified villagers streaming into the streets of this idyllic mountain town near the border with Mexico. One hundred people were missing, and hundreds were injured.

The quake, which hit at 10:35 a.m. in the midst of the workday, caused terror over an unusually wide area, with damage reported in all but one of Guatemala's 22 states and shaking felt as far away as Mexico City, 600 miles to the northwest.

San Marcos, where more than 30 homes collapsed, bore the brunt of the temblor.

More than 300 people, including firefighters, police and villagers, tried to dig through a half ton of sand at a quarry in the commercial center of town in an attempt to rescue seven people believed buried alive. Among those under the sand was a 6-year-old boy who had accompanied his grandfather to work.

"I want to see Giovanni! I want to see Giovanni!" the boy's mother, Francisca Ramirez, 42, frantically cried. "He's not dead. Get him out."

President Otto Perez Molina flew to San Marcos to view the damage. He said the death toll stood at 39, most of it in this lush mountainous region of 50,000 indigenous farmers and ranchers, many belonging to the Mam ethnic group. That was before another six more deaths were reported in another town.

"One thing is to hear about what happened and another thing entirely is to see it," Perez said. "As a Guatemalan I feel sad . . . to see mothers crying for their lost children." The president said the government would pay for the funerals of all victims in the poor region.

Many of the colorful adobe buildings in the 10-square-mile center of San Marcos were either cracked or reduced to rubble, including the police station and the courthouse. The temblor left a large gash in one of the streets, and hundreds of frightened villagers stood in the open, refusing to go back inside.

Hundreds of people crammed into the hallways of the small town hospital waiting for medical staff to help injured family members, some complaining they were not getting care quickly enough.

The quake, which was 20 miles deep, was centered 15 miles off the coastal town of Champerico and 100 miles southwest of Guatemala City. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Guatemala since a 1976 temblor that killed 23,000.