Rescuers called off their search on Friday after pulling 32 bodies from the wreckage of a Mexican passenger bus buried when a rain-soaked mountainside gave way.
Officials initially speculated as many as 60 people were aboard the bus when it was engulfed by tons of rock and earth as it travelled on a twisting rural road early on Wednesday.
After two solid days of digging, workers using heavy machinery pulled the mangled remains of the vehicle from the ground near the town of Eloxochitlan in the central state of Puebla. They then sent in sniffer dogs to search for more bodies, but found none.
”The specialists tell us there is nothing more to recover, that it’s done,” Puebla Interior Secretary Javier Lopez told the Televisa television network on Friday.
Lopez said Governor Mario Marin had ordered officials to go house to house in Eloxochitlan to ask residents if they were missing any family members.
Officials said it was impossible to know the exact number of passengers on board at the time of the avalanche because the bus made numerous stops along its route.
Lopez said Marin had ordered the highway closed temporarily. Marin previously said authorities are considering dynamiting the rest of the mountain to avoid future landslides.
Puebla government spokesperson Ismael Rios said the landslide brought down at least 100 tons of earth and rock piled 40m high.
So far, all but two of the 32 victims — ages 6 to 48 — have been identified, government officials said.
On Thursday, Marin said officials were bringing coffins to the site, and that the government would pay for victims’ funerals and set up scholarships for their children.
Heavy rainfall elsewhere in Mexico this week has triggered flooding and landslides that killed several people. — Sapa-AP