An estimated 25 people, including at least three children, have been killed and nearly 300 injured in the most violent eruption of Guatemala's Fuego volcano in more than four decades.
Volcan de Fuego, whose name means "Volcano of Fire", spewed an 8-kilometre stream of red hot lava and belched a thick plume of black smoke and ash that rained onto the capital and other regions.
The charred bodies of victims lay on the steaming, ashen remnants of a pyroclastic flow, as rescuers attended to badly injured victims in the aftermath of the eruption.
It was the 3,763-metre volcano's second eruption this year.
"It's a river of lava that overflowed its banks and affected the El Rodeo village. There are injured, burned and dead people," Sergio Cabanas, the general secretary of Guatemala's CONRED national disaster management agency, said on radio.
CONRED said the number of dead had risen to 25, from an earlier estimate of seven, including a CONRED employee. Some 3,100 people have been evacuated from the area.
Officials said the dead were so far all concentrated in three towns: El Rodeo, Alotenango and San Miguel los Lotes.
Dozens of videos were popping up on social media and local TV, depicting the extent of devastation.
In one, a visibly exhausted woman said she had narrowly escaped as lava poured through corn fields. Steaming lava flowed down the streets of a village as emergency crews entered homes in search of trapped residents.
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 the Guatemala City's La Aurora international airport to shut down its only runway due to the presence of volcanic ash and to guarantee passenger and aircraft safety, Guatemala's civil aviation authority said in a tweet.
The volcano is located some 40 km southwest of the capital Guatemala City and is close to the colonial city of Antigua, popular with tourists and known for its coffee plantations.
Workers and guests were evacuated from the La Reunion golf club near Antigua. Video footage showed a black cloud of ash rising from just beyond the golf club. The lava river was running on the other side of the volcano.
"Temperatures in the pyroclastic flow can exceed 700 degrees Celsius and volcanic ash can rain down on a 15 kilometre radius," said Eddy Sanchez, director of Guatemala's seismological, volcanic and meteorological institute.
