Death toll in Guatemala mudslide reaches 253 as search enters second week

A woman places flowers over a coffin during the burial of five mudslide victims inside the Santa Catarina Pinula cemetery on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015. Prosecutors in Guatemala said Tuesday they have opened an investigation into who allowed homes to be built in an unsafe area where a massive mudslide killed more than 100 people. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) (The Associated Press)

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Samuel Morales, who survived a mudslide but is still searching for his missing family, holds a photo of his 4-year-old daughter Jaquelin in Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Friday, Oct. 9, 2015. The death toll of the massive landslide has risen to more than 250 as the search for victims entered its second week. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) (The Associated Press)

Rescuers leave after a day of searching for victims of a mudslide in Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Friday, Oct. 9, 2015. The death toll of the massive landslide has risen over 250 as the search for victims entered its second week. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) (The Associated Press)

GUATEMALA CITY – The death toll of a massive landslide that buried a neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala's capital has risen to 253 as the search for victims enters its second week.

Deputy hospitals minister Israel Lemus said Friday that officials had still not decided to suspend the search in Santa Catarina Pinula, but plan to meet to discuss it on Monday.

Alejandro Maldonado is the executive director of the National Disaster Reduction Commission. He says the current count of missing people is 374. He says 184 homes were affected.

Maldonado says the decision to stop or continue the search will be based on the risk to rescuers.

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