Guatemala's president Jimmy Morales on Monday travelled to the area hit by a powerful volcano that killed at least 62 people.

The death toll was expected to rise as residents of remote mountain hamlets were caught off guard, with little or no time to flee to safety.

During his visit, Morales was stopped by a woman who said 20 of her family members are missing following the eruption.

The distraught woman begged Morales for help saying, "Mr. President, my family is missing. Send a helicopter to throw water over them because they are burning."

On Monday, emergency workers dug through the debris and mud, perilous labour on smoldering terrain still hot enough to melt shoe soles a day after the volcano exploded in a hail of ash, smoke and molten rock.

Bodies were so thickly coated with ash that they looked like statues, and rescuers were forced to use sledgehammers to break through the roofs of houses buried in debris up to their rooflines to try to see if anyone was trapped inside.

Emergency crews in helicopters managed to pull at least 10 people alive from areas cut off by the flows.

Conred, Guatemala's disaster agency, said 3,265 people had been evacuated.