Search continues two weeks after Salvador quake

Dozens of volunteers are still digging for bodies buried under mountains of mud in Las Colinas two weeks after the El Salvador earthquake.

The sounds of machinery have reverberated through the neighbourhood since January 13, when the 7.6-magnitude earthquake violently shook the country, killing 726 people and injuring 4,440.

In Las Colinas the landslide buried 300 homes, and local residents say as many as 1,000 people are still missing.

"The work is slow to avoid dismembering the bodies," said German Schleehauf, an official from the Guatemalan highway department, of the lengthy search for bodies.

"There is still a lot of work to do before the zone is completely cleaned up."

Police have blocked off the area to facilitate the work.

Meanwhile, health workers are battling to ward off epidemics and respiratory infections among the thousands of people, especially children, still living in crowded shelters.

In a radio address to the nation, President Francisco Flores issued a call to help the victims.

"The only hope that the million hurt Salvadorans have is that the other 5 million who aren't suffering will lend them a hand," Mr Flores said in a radio address.

"If each affected Salvadoran counts on five others to help him, we will get through this."