DOWNPOURS caused by tropical storm Agatha have created a giant
sinkhole in Guatemala City, while throughout the country officials have
reported 120 people dead and at least 53 missing.
The sinkhole, which formed in the northern part of the capital city, swallowed up a space larger than the area of a street intersection.
Residents said a three-storey building and a house fell into the hole. The residents blamed a poor sewerage system for the sinkhole.
Officials said flooding and landslides caused by Agatha had killed at least 144 people and left thousands homeless throughout Central America, with Guatemala the hardest hit by the season's first tropical storm.
In Chimaltenango - a province west of Guatemala City - landslides buried dozens of rural Indian communities and killed at least 60 people, Governor Erick de Leon said. About 110,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Guatemala.
Thousands more have fled their homes in neighbouring Honduras, where the death toll rose to 15 as meteorologists predicted three more days of rain.
In El Salvador, about 180 landslides have been reported to authorities and 11,000 people evacuated.
The death toll was nine, the country's President, Mauricio Funes, said.
Agatha was demoted from a tropical storm to a tropical depression on Saturday night and lost its status as a depression on Sunday evening.
It was the first named storm for the Pacific hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season starts today.
The sinkhole, which formed in the northern part of the capital city, swallowed up a space larger than the area of a street intersection.
Residents said a three-storey building and a house fell into the hole. The residents blamed a poor sewerage system for the sinkhole.
Officials said flooding and landslides caused by Agatha had killed at least 144 people and left thousands homeless throughout Central America, with Guatemala the hardest hit by the season's first tropical storm.
In Chimaltenango - a province west of Guatemala City - landslides buried dozens of rural Indian communities and killed at least 60 people, Governor Erick de Leon said. About 110,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Guatemala.
Thousands more have fled their homes in neighbouring Honduras, where the death toll rose to 15 as meteorologists predicted three more days of rain.
In El Salvador, about 180 landslides have been reported to authorities and 11,000 people evacuated.
The death toll was nine, the country's President, Mauricio Funes, said.
Agatha was demoted from a tropical storm to a tropical depression on Saturday night and lost its status as a depression on Sunday evening.
It was the first named storm for the Pacific hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season starts today.
