At least 20 killed by mudslide in El Salvador

At least 20 people died on Sunday in a major mudslide in El Salvador, as soils in this mountainous country were saturated due to a week of torrential rains, authorities said. This brought the number of rain-related deaths to 27 in El Salvador. "The number of victims has increased to 27 after the mudslide this morning," El Salvador's Civil Protection Director Jorge Mendez told local media on Sunday. Meanwhile, five more rain-caused deaths were also reported in Guatemala, and two more in Honduras, bringing the total death tolls in the two countries to 28 and 12, respectively. In all, 82 people have been reported dead in Mexico and Central America as a result of last week's heavy rains, caused by a wave of five hurricanes and tropical storms. Mexico and Nicaragua have so far reported eight and seven fatalities, respectively, from the disaster. Weather forecasts say intense rains are expected to continue for at least another 24 hours across southern Mexico and Central America. At least 250,000 people were reportedly affected across the region, including 62,700 in Mexico, 118,704 in Guatemala, about 60, 000 in El Salvador, 7,862 in Honduras and 4,463 in Nicaragua.