Entire villages wiped out in minutes: Guatemala´s volcano disaster - Before and After - seen from space

It´s like a modern Pompeii of human tragedy: Green canyons, hillsides and farms were reduced to a grey wasteland by fast-moving avalanches of super-heated lava, rock and ash that kept rushing into villages in Guatemala this week.

Volcan de Fuego - the Volcano of Fire -  spewed ash 20,000ft into the air and sent rapid pyroclastic flows down on  seven nearby towns. It was the volcano´s the largest eruption for four decades.

A closer view of San Miguel Los Lotes shows only a small part of the town still visible, and only vaguely intact, after the ash swept through in only three minutes.

A secondary eruption on Tuesday blew ash more than 16,000ft above sea level and sent more volcanic material over settlements to the east and northeast.

Rescuers have dug up 99 bodies. Only 28 have been identified, with at least 197 people still missing with little hope of finding them alive.

More than 1.7 million people we affected by the eruption with 12,000 evacuated to overflowing relief centers.

Rescue workers  can be seen searching in El Rodeo, one of the villages in the disaster area near the Volcan de Fuego. Bottom left hand corner show USAR teams, and the top middle of the photo shows a fire truck parked at the edge of the ash covered village.