At least 27 people have been killed and many are missing after a landslide triggered by heavy rains struck a coffee-farming village in south-west Guatemala.

It sounded like an earthquake

Coffee farmer Daniel Ajpop

A torrent of mud, rocks and tree trunks poured down the slopes of the nearby Toliman volcano late on Thursday, burying much of the village of El Porvenir.

Villagers fled in panic to seek higher ground as more than 20 houses were engulfed.

Those who could not escape in time were buried. Many of the dead were children, caught inside their homes.

Eleven people are still missing, feared dead.

"It sounded like an earthquake," said Daniel Ajpop, a coffee farmer who lost a daughter and granddaughter in the mudslide.

Hard rain

Thousands of rescue workers and villagers used tractors, picks, shovels and their bare hands in the search for survivors.

People living nearby brought food for survivors and rescuers

Chunks of wooden houses and corrugated iron roofs stuck out of the stream of waist-high mud.

El Porvenir - about 170 kilometres (106 miles) west of the capital, Guatemala City - lies in a narrow valley, near one of the country's best known tourist attractions, Lake Atitlan.

Most residents work on nearby coffee plantations.

Rain continued to fall across much of Guatemala on Friday night, triggering flash floods and mudslides in other parts of the country.

Five people are reported to have died when a house was buried in a separate mudslide on the outskirts of Guatemala City.