At least 25 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in Guatemala’s most violent volcanic eruption in more than 40 years.
The country’s Volcan de Fuego - or “volcano of fire” - spewed an 8km stream of red hot lava and belched a thick plume of black smoke and ash that rained onto the capital and other regions.
Witnesses described seeing bodies of victims laying on the steaming remnants of the volcanic flow as rescuers attended to badly injured victims in the aftermath of the eruption.
Around 3,100 people have been evacuated from the area, with officials reporting that fatalities have been concentrated to the towns of El Rodeo, Alotenango and San Miguel los Lotes.
It is the second time the 3,763 metre volcano - which is 40km southwest of the capital Guatemala City - has erupted this year.
Dozens of videos appeared on social media and Guatemalan TV showing the extent of the devastation.
One video published by news outlet Telediario, purportedly taken in the El Rodeo village, showed three bodies strewn atop the remnants of the flow as rescuers arrived to attend to an elderly man caked from head to toe in ash and mud.
In another video, a visibly exhausted woman, her face blackened from ash, said she had narrowly escaped as lava poured through corn fields.
“Not everyone escaped, I think they were buried,” Consuelo Hernandez told news outlet Diario de Centroamerica.
Steaming lava flowed down the streets of a village as emergency crews entered homes in search of trapped residents, another video on a different media outlet showed.
President Jimmy Morales said he had convened his ministers and was considering declaring a state of emergency in the departments of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepequez.
The eruption forced Guatemala City’s La Aurora international airport to shut down its only runway due to the presence of volcanic ash.
Officials said the volcanic eruption still presented a danger and could cause more mud and pyroclastic flows.
“Temperatures in the pyroclastic flow can exceed 700 degrees (Celsius) and volcanic ash can rain down on a nine mile radius,” said Eddy Sanchez, director of Guatemala’s seismological, volcanic and meteorological institute.
“That could cause more mud flows and nearby rivers to burst their banks.”