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“We’re from the rescue unit,” one worker announced. “If there is someone there, please make some noise or yell.”

No response was heard and the digging continued.

Among those mourning the loss of their relatives on Saturday was Nehemias Gonzalez, who seemed to have run out of tears. He lost his 21-year-old wife, Masiel Alexandra, and their 2-year-old child, Angel Efrain.

Gonzalez said he was working at his job at a McDonald’s restaurant when the landslide occurred. He said he usually left work at 11 p.m., but that day he was given extra chores and didn’t leave until 4 a.m. Friday. It wasn’t until then that he learned about the disaster.

“The last thing she said when I called her on the telephone in the afternoon was that she loved me,” Gonzalez said, looking down at the ground. “I love her, too.”

Also at the site on Saturday was Haroldo Perez, who travelled with four other relatives from San Marcos, about 177 miles (285 kilometres) west of the capital. Armed with shovels, they were searching for his 36-year-old sister Mary Perez, a secretary they had not heard from since the mudslide.

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Rescue workers labouring Friday in a frantic bid to find survivors pulled one man alive from the rubble of his collapsed home more than 15 hours after the landslide hit.

Sanchez said Friday that the dead, including two babies, were carried to an improvised morgue where weeping relatives identified the bodies. The dead included Quani Bonilla, 18, who played on the national squash team, he said.