A mother and a daughter were missing after a Guatemala sinkhole swallowed a car on Sunday. The girl's father was rescued from the hole in Villa Nueva, along with three other people.

NBC News reported that search efforts were underway for the mother and the daughter who disappeared when a sinkhole opened in the middle of the town's main thoroughfare.

Search efforts on Monday had a crane lifting a blue sedan from the sinkhole, with rescuers descending using ropes and ladders. The crane also lowered rescuers at one point, and a search dog was deployed into the opening.

Relatives told journalists that the two missing people were supposedly traveling in another car when it fell into the hole.

La Prensa Latina noted that the members of the relief corps and Guatemalan army were involved in the sinkhole with a special team in search of the two persons. However, the two have not been found so far. The rescuers only managed to pull out the vehicle they were in.

Road and Safety and Security spokesperson Juan Aquino confirmed that cranes were used to remove the vehicle from the sinkhole.

Aquino added that two of the three people injured had been inside the vehicle while the third person was a motorcyclist.

READ NEXT: Guatemala's Alejandro Giammattei Unharmed After Gunmen Opened Fire on President's Military Guards  

Guatemala Rainy Season

Officials noted in June that at least 15 people have already died in a dozen mudslides caused by heavy rains that started in early May in Guatemala.

The Office of the Coordination for the Reduction of National Disasters noted that the 15 fatalities they recorded included a woman and her six children, and three brothers from two Indigenous villages, according to a PHYS report.

The office noted that heavy rains had damaged 930 homes, as well as eight schools, seven bridges, and more than 80 roads.

The regions most affected by the heavy rains were mainly inhabited by indigenous populations.

The previous year's rainy season logged the death of 25 people and affected almost one in 10 Guatemalans.

Guatemala Sinkhole in 2010

In 2010, a sinkhole also opened up in Guatemala City, which swallowed a whole intersection and one building.

The depth of the 2010 Guatemala sinkhole was so deep it was impossible to see its bottom in photos available in public, as reported by NPR News. There were reports at the time that there was more than one of these sinkholes in the capital city.

Sinkholes are formed when the underlying limestone or similar rock is eroded away by water that creates subsurface caves and caverns.

Natural depressions that cause water collection and structures such as houses and streets with poor drainage are especially prone to sinkholes.

The 2010 Tropical Storm Agatha was one of the main reasons that accelerated the process of the Guatemala sinkhole.

In 2007, a sinkhole was also found in Barrio San Antonio in Guatemala City. This claimed three lives.

READ MORE: VP Kamala Harris Announces New $1.9B Worth of Private Sector Investments in Central America to Address Immigration

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Two People Missing After Massive Sinkholes Form Near Guatemala's Capital - from NBC News