When the panic set off by the new evacuations became clear, disaster officials called for calm.

Bodies were so thickly coated with ash that they looked like statues, and rescuers were forced to use sledgehammers to break through the roofs of houses buried in debris up to their roof lines to try to see if anyone was trapped inside.

The volcano west of Guatemala City exploded the previous day, sending towering clouds of ash kilometres into the air and hot flows of ash mixed with water and debris down its flanks, blocking roads and burning homes.