SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – At least 130 homes have been impacted by a burst of seismic activity in El Salvador, leaving over a dozen people in shelters, the Central American country’s government said on Monday.
Authorities reported 219 earthquakes from Sunday afternoon until Monday morning.
No deaths have been reported, but the tremors have damaged homes and caused at least 20 landslides, prompting officials to declare a red alert for towns in the department of Ahuachapan, the epicenter of the seismic activity.
“We are working on evaluating the houses in order to meet the population’s needs,” Luis Amaya, director of El Salvador’s civil protection agency, said at a press conference.
The largest earthquake occurred at 5:07 p.m. on Sunday, at a magnitude of 5.1 and a shallow depth of nine kilometers, in the municipality of San Lorenzo, experts from the civil protection said.
Crews of public workers arrived at the scene on Monday to remove debris, while authorities set up eight emergency shelters in the area.
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Editing by Leslie Adler)
