At leat five people died when a powerful earthquake of 7.1 magnitude struck off the northeast coast of Honduras early today.
The offshore quake destroyed some 60 houses and damaged scores of other buildings across the north of Honduras, a poor country of 7 million people, and briefly triggered a tsunami alert for Central America's Caribbean coast.
A quake of that size can cause serious damage over a wide area.
Four children, aged 3 to 15, died when their houses collapsed after the quake struck in the early hours of the morning near the resort island of Roatan.
"They were all asleep. Most of them died crushed," said Randolfo Funes, an official at Honduras' civil protection agency who said a fifth person died.
At least 25 people were injured and officials said the death toll could rise as reports came in from poor villages and towns in the mountainous area around Honduras' Caribbean coast.
Security guard Pedro Ramirez, 52, was in his truck outside an office building in the capital of Tegucigalpa.
"I felt the car rock and I started to hear little bits of debris from the building next door hitting the roof," he said.
"It was frightening because it was shaking a lot. I've never felt anything like it."
The earthquake hit 64km northeast of Roatan, the biggest of the country's three Bay Islands. It had a relatively shallow depth of 10km.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch for Honduras, Guatemala and Belize, but lifted it half an hour later.
The Caribbean island of Roatan, close to the world's second-largest coral reef, is a resort area popular for its scuba diving, snorkeling and dolphin watching.
Reuters