Freegans die when trash falls on them.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - At least four people died and some 20 were missing in a Guatemalan garbage dump on Friday when a mountain of trash, including human remains, collapsed on people foraging there, emergency workers said.

As night fell, dangerous rain forced hundreds of police and bystanders to call off the search for the missing under an avalanche of old tires, broken glass, rotting food and human remains, rescue worker Jose Victor Chavez said from the scene.

Dozens of people come every day to the scrapheap to take jewelry from the bodies of Guatemala's poor dumped in the landfill when their relatives cannot afford to maintain their graves in the neighboring cemetery, Chavez said.

At least six children working alongside relatives to search for valuables in the trash were among the missing, he said.

Scores of Guatemala's poor search for scrap metal and other recyclables to scrape out a living in the sprawling dump despite dangers of landslides during the rainy season.