The massive eruption blasted smoke more than four miles into the sky and set off a pyroclastic surge of the kind that destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii in AD 79.
Such a surge – a mixture of ash, sand, and gas – can reach temperatures of 700C and travel far faster than lava, over 100km per hour. Guatemalan villagers were caught completely off guard.
Hilda Lopez described how it swept into her village of San Miguel Los Lotes during a party.
She said: “We were at a party, celebrating the birth of a baby, when one of the neighbours shouted at us to come out and see the lava that was coming.
Aerial view of the aftermath of a volcano eruption in Escuintla CREDIT: REUTERS
“We didn’t believe it, and when we went out the hot mud was already coming down the street. My mother was stuck there, she couldn’t get out.”
One group of villagers gathered on a bridge to watch what they thought would be a slow lava flow, only fleeing at the last minute as the bridge was suddenly overwhelmed.
