More than 90 dead in floods in El Salvador

Nov 8, 2009, 19:08 GMT

Mexico City/San Salvador - At least 90 people were killed as heavy rains prompted mudslides and flooding rivers in El Salvador, rescue workers said Sunday.

The rainfall, which was prompted by a cold front and the remainders of Caribbean hurricane Ida, also caused havoc in other countries in the region, including southern Mexico, where more than 200,000 people were affected.

More than 60 people died in the El Salvadorian capital, San Salvador, alone.

Another 24 residents of the town San Vicente at the base of the Chinchontepec volcano died when they were caught in mudslides, Salvadorian Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said. One mudslide had covered an area of eight kilometres, damaging several towns, he said.

Some parts of the region were still cut off, it was reported. More than 300 houses were destroyed in San Vicente, and streets and bridges in the regions had collapsed.

The hurricane had grown to a category-2 storm on Sunday, moving towards the Mexico's Caribbean coast and prompting storm alerts in the region between Cozumel island and the city of Cancun in the North of the Yucatan peninsula.

Meteorologists of the US hurricane centre in Miami expect the storm to move via Yucatan Strait onto the Gulf of Mexico and the southern US coast.