Major earthquake rocks Central America

Death toll rises

In this story: Guatemala hit hard Landslides in El Salvador RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- Hours after a major earthquake hit Central America, Salvadoran President Francisco Flores declared a national emergency and appealed for international help -- especially from "people specialized in finding victims who are buried."

Red Cross spokesman Carlos Lopez Mendoza said his agency had reports of at least 61 deaths from around the country -- though in many cases bodies had not yet been recovered.

Two other deaths were reported in Guatemala.

Lopez estimated that 500 houses had been destroyed in the middle-class Las Colinas neighborhood west of the capital, San Salvador. He said the wall of a hospital had collapsed in San Miguel and 25 were known dead in one small village.

The 7.6 magnitude quake was centered off the coast of El Salvador, about 65 miles southwest of San Miguel, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)in Denver, Colorado.

A tsunami warning was issued for Mexico, Nicaragua and El Salvador, the USGS said.

VIDEO CNN's Brian Nelson speaks with Carlos Renderos in San Salvador, El Salvador, about the damage (6:00 p.m. EDT) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MAGNITUDE GUIDE Below is an interactive guide to earthquake magnitude and severity: Magnitude: Less than 3.5 3.5 - 5.4 Under 6.0 6.1 - 6.9 7.0 - 7.9 8 or greater IN-DEPTH Earthquakes of the 20th Century     AUDIO Journalist Martin Austurias provides an eyewitness account from Guatemala 730K/31 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The Associated Press reported that a hillside in San Salvador collapse in the earthquake, burying scores of homes.

"There is my boy! Help me! Help me!" wailed Carmen de Marin, a 41-year-old woman weeping beside the buried ruins of her house in the middle class Las Colinas neighborhood west of the capital, San Salvador.

She said her 12-year-old son Jaime Ernesto Marin had stayed home to await a phone call from his father in the United States when she went out shopping shortly before the 7.6-magnitude quake hit at about 11:35 a.m. She returned to the destroyed house.

The death toll was uncertain, but reporters saw at least 12 bodies, apparently dead, pulled from the debris in the middle class Las Colinas neighborhood west of the capital.

Hundreds of rescuers frantically scrambled over the scene ripping at the earth with sticks and bare hands to reach those still buried.

News of the damage was slowed by the fact much of El Salvador's telephone service and electricity was knocked out for several hours.

"This is terrible. I don't think we will be able to pull out any victims; everything has been buried," said David Lara, a rescue worker struggling at the mass of dirt and concrete with a shovel.

"I felt an earthquake and all the hill came down and covered the houses," said Candido Salinas, 60, who lives across the street from the slide zone, which was shaken by a powerful quake at about 11:35 a.m. (1735 GMT.)

Elsewhere in El Salvador and Guatemala, churches collapsed, electricity failed and walls cracked and roads were blocked by landslides.

Buildings swayed in Mexico City, about 600 miles to the northwest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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