Quake leaves four dead

A POWERFUL earthquake toppled more than two dozen homes in Honduras and Belize yesterday, killing at least four people and injuring 40 as terrified residents spilled from their homes across much of Central America.

The magnitude-7.1 quake struck at 2:24am (08.24 GMT) off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, 130km northeast of the beach town of La Ceiba, according to the US Geological Survey. Amongst the victims, Reynaldo Funez, 15, was buried in his house in Pineda de la Lima, 200km north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and Deily Yazmin Santos, 6, was killed when her house collapsed in Morazan.