<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Two children and four adults were found dead Monday after a river swollen by heavy rains swept away shacks&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">built on its banks in the Guatemalan capital, authorities said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thirteen people, including eight children, were still missing after the river tore through the Dios es Fiel (God is Faithful) informal settlement in the early morning hours, according to the Conred disaster relief agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hundreds of firemen, police, soldiers, and volunteers were taking part in the rescue efforts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Naranjo river washed away six homes, built mainly of zinc sheets, under a bridge in the center of Guatemala City, Conred spokesman Rodolfo Garcia told reporters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hundreds of needy residents of the capital constructed their homes on the banks of the river despite a municipal prohibition due to it containing residential wastewater from the capital's sewage system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Water bearing stones, soil and human waste gushed through the settlement following heavy rains on Sunday, leaving mainly just debris in its wake, an AFP reporter observed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Resident Esau Gonzalez, a 42-year-old day worker, recalled how "the river...took homes, neighbors' belongings. Neighbors disappeared."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gonzalez told AFP the people of the community had nowhere else to go.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Rent is very high. Salaries are not enough to pay rent with," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The river took entire families," added Marvin Cabrera, 36, a motorcycle food delivery worker.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We knew the risk, (but) we are here out of necessity," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iris Lopez, 27, said she hoped the government would move the community to a safer place, adding "nothing remained" of the rickety house of her sister, who was away visiting their mother.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If she was here, she would have been taken by the river," said Lopez.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tens of thousands of Guatemala's 17.7 million inhabitants depend on precarious housing in often hazardous environments such as this one in a country with a 59-percent poverty rate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country has a housing deficit of about two million units, according to the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction and the ANACOVI builders' association.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei expressed his "deep concern and solidarity with the affected families", in a message on social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The rainy season, which runs from May to November, has this year claimed 29 lives so far, affected some 2.1 million people of whom more than 10,000 lost their homes, and destroyed four roads and nine bridges. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>