Some remains of Guatemala volcano victims unidentified: official

Guatemalan investigators have been unable to identify about 110 pieces of remains from victims of a volcanic eruption that killed 202 people and left 229 missing last June, a forensic official said Saturday.

After months of testing, which included sending some samples abroad, about 110 remains cannot be identified, said the head of the National Forensic Sciences Office, Fanuel Garcia.

"The analysis process has concluded and 202 people were identified and their remains handed to family for burial," he said.

As for the rest of the remains, some could be duplicates from people already identified, Garcia said.

"We have all of them and we are holding on to them, awaiting a time to carry out a collective burial," he said of the unidentified remains.

The June 3 eruption of gas, ash and glowing boulders from Fuego, 3,763 meters high (12,246 feet), wiped the village of San Miguel Los Lotes from the map.

That was the worst of at least five eruptions by Fuego last year.

Located 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Guatemala City, it remains volatile and on Friday rained ash on nearby communities before quietening Saturday, the Institute of Seismology said.

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The biggest volcanic eruption of sulfur dioxide in 2018
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 04, 2019
The Manaro Voui volcano on the island of Ambae in the nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean made the 2018 record books. A NASA-NOAA satellite confirmed Manaro Voui had the largest eruption of sulfur dioxide that year. The volcano injected 400,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the upper troposphere and stratosphere during its most active phase in July, and a total of 600,000 tons in 2018. That's three times the amount released from all combined worldwide eruptions in 2017. During a serie ... read more