The death toll from the eruption of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire has risen dramatically as rescuers use heavy machinery and shovels to frantically search deep ash drifts and mud flows.

Fanuel Garcia, director of Guatemala’s National Institute of Forensic Science, on Tuesday morning (AEST) said 62 bodies have been recovered in the hamlets of Los Lotes and El Rodeo.

Mr Garcia said only 13 of those bodies have so far been identified and the death toll was expected to rise. 

Head of the country’s disaster agency, Sergio Cabanas, earlier said rescuers using helicopters had lifted 10 survivors from areas hit by thick ash, mud or lava as residents said they were caught unaware by fast-moving pyroclastic flows.

The volcano west of Guatemala City exploded on Monday morning, sending towering clouds of ash kilometres into the air and hot flows of ash mixed with water and debris down its flanks, blocking roads and burning homes.

The charred landscape left behind was still too hot to touch or even to pull bodies from in many parts, melting the shoes of rescuers.

Workers told of finding bodies so thickly coated with ash they appeared to be statues.

Local Hilda Lopez said the volcanic mud swept into her village of Los Lotes, just below the mountain’s flanks.

She still does not know where her mother or her sister are.

“We were at a party, celebrating the birth of a baby, when one of the neighbours shouted at us to come out and see the lava that was coming,” Ms Lopez recalled.

“We didn’t believe it, and when we went out the hot mud was already coming down the street.

“My mother was stuck there, she couldn’t get out,” she said, weeping and holding her face in her hands.

Ms Lopez’s husband, Joel Gonzalez, said his father had been unable to escape and was believed to be “buried back there, at the house”.

In the village of El Rodeo, heavily armed soldiers wearing blue masks to ward off the dust stood guard behind yellow tape cordoning off the scene as orange-helmeted workers operated a backhoe.

A group of residents arrived at the scene with shovels and work boots.

Some locals said they never learned of the danger until it was upon them – and were critical of authorities.

“Conred (the disaster agency) never told us to leave. When the lava was already here they passed by in their pickup trucks telling us to leave, but the cars did not stop to pick up the people,” Rafael Letran said, a resident of El Rodeo.

“The government is good at stealing, but when it comes to helping people they lack spark.”

Eddy Sanchez, director of the country’s seismology and volcanology institute, said the flows reached temperatures of about 1300F (700C).

The disaster agency said 3265 people had been evacuated.

Dramatic video showed a fast-moving lahar, or flow of pyroclastic material and slurry, slamming into and partly destroying a bridge on a road between Sacatepequez and Escuintla.

WTF… This is what people in #Guatemala 🇬🇹 saw after the Fuego volcano erupted less than an hour ago.

Deaths have already been reported. pic.twitter.com/9DbToOQl5z

— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) June 3, 2018

Among the fatalities were four people, including a disaster agency official, killed when lava set a house on fire in El Rodeo, National Disaster Co-ordinator Sergio Cabanas said.

Two children were burned to death as they watched the volcano’s second eruption this year from a bridge, he added.

Ash from the volcano fell on the capital city as well as the departments of Sacatepequez, Chimaltenango and Escuintla.

Streets and houses were covered in the colonial town of Antigua, a popular tourist destination.

Hey everyone please stop for a moment and send prayers to my people in Guatemala 🙏🏼 the volcano is erupting and causing so much destruction. pic.twitter.com/TRZX8QdUYG

— £m¥ 🌟 (@flyme2the_moon) June 3, 2018

Aviation authorities closed Guatemala City’s international airport because of the danger posed to planes.

One of Central America’s most active volcanoes, the conical Volcan de Fuego reaches an altitude of 3763 metres above sea level at its peak.

-with agencies