At least 124 people have been killed in El Salvador by flooding and landslides² following days of heavy rain, the government says.

萨尔瓦多连日以来暴雨倾盆，洪水和山体滑坡造成至少124人死亡。

President Mauricio Funes has declared a national emergency, describing the damages as "incalculable".

The capital San Salvador（圣萨尔瓦多） and central San Vicente province were the hardest-hit regions, officials say.

Local reporter Juan Carlos Barahona says San Vicente is virtually cut off by landslides and collapsed³ bridges.

Mr Barahona, of the El Salvador daily La Prensa Grafica, told the BBC that the other worst affected⁴ areas were La Libertad, La Paz and Cuscatlan.

Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said 60 people were still missing, and about 7,000 more were in shelters.

In the town of San Vicente rescue workers pulled bodies from the wreckage（破坏，残骸） of houses.

"We rescued a man this morning who had fractures（破碎，骨折）, and a little girl," resident Cristian Aguilar told Reuters news agency.

"My son and I crossed through the floodwater and brought them here, and now she is with her parents."

The rains also triggered massive rock slides from the Chichontepec volcano that buried a number of houses in the town of Verapaz, also in San Vicente province, officials said.

A local police officer told the Associated Press: "The weather continues to be bad, and we already have a river flowing through the village due to a landslide¹. We are worried things will get worse if the rains continue."

Large parts of El Salvador are without electricity or clean water and remain cut off from government aid, the BBC's Latin American correspondent Will Grant reports.

He says that this is easily the biggest crisis the government of Mr Funes has had to face since coming to office five months ago.

News of the deaths came as Hurricane Ida, which has now strengthened to a category two storm, was poised⁵ to enter the Gulf⁶ of Mexico.

However, Ida, which passed to the east of El Salvador three days ago, is not thought to have directly caused the severe rains.

The BBC's weather centre said El Salvador's rains were mainly caused by a separate low pressure system in the Pacific.