More than 120 die as storm hits El Salvador

---

More than 120 people have been killed by floods and mud slides in El Salvador after a weekend of heavy rains driven by hurricane Ida. Authorities said 124 people had died and at least 60 were missing. About 7,000 more are in shelters, reports AP.
"There are 60 people missing in just the province of San Vicente," t he country's interior minister, Humberto Centeno told reporters.
He said rescue workers were still struggling to reach some of the worst affected areas because of damage to roads. "We have been through disaster zones, including a fly-over of Verapaz," he said. "It is a real tragedy there."
The capital, San Salvador, was the hardest hit region, with 61 people reported dead, including a family of two adults and two children who were killed when a mud slide buried their home , a Red Cross spokesman, Carlos López Mendoza, said. Central San Vicente province was also badly affected, with 23 killed.
Most of the victims were buried by mudslides or swept away by raging rivers, the deputy interior minister, Ernesto Zelayandia, said.
A Red Cross spokesman said a river in Verapaz overflowed its banks and swamped 300 homes. The rains unleashed massive rock slides from the Chichontepec volcano that buried several houses, the mayor, Antonio Cerritos, told Radio Nacional.
Heavy rains began falling on El Salvador on Saturday night as the storm moved through the area, causing rivers to burst their banks and mud slides in the hilly interior to bury homes and roads.