San Salvador - (AFP) - Hurricane Julia, which became a tropical storm after hitting Guatemala on Monday, claimed the lives of five people in El Salvador and Honduras, causing a lot of damage in other Central American countries.

The National Hurricane Center, based in the United States, said that "the eye of Storm Julia penetrated the territory" of Guatemala and "is expected to dissipate by evening as it continues its path to southern Guatemala."

The center stated that Julia, which was a category one hurricane, hit the coast of Nicaragua on the Caribbean Sea at dawn on Sunday and still poses a "risk" of the possibility of floods and landslides that "may cause victims" in Central America and southern Mexico.

On Monday, El Salvadoran police wrote in a tweet that "at least two people were killed" when a wall collapsed in a house in Guataquiaogua, about 150 km east of San Salvador.

A third person died in El Salvador when a tree fell on his home in the city of Caluco in the southwestern state of Sonsonate, according to rescue teams.

Two people drowned in Honduras after their boat sank, while a third is still missing, according to Filmer Wood, mayor of Bruce Laguna in eastern Honduras.

In Guatemala, the Coordinating Committee for Disaster Prevention reported the disappearance of two men in the flooding Cajabun River in the north of the country.
From Guatemala to Panama, the authorities recorded heavy rains, accompanied by strong winds, which damaged roads and destroyed homes and bridges.

Julia is the second hurricane of the current season to hit Central America after Bonnie in July along the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

At the end of the year 2020, Hurricanes Eta and Utah killed at least 200 people and caused millions of dollars in damage.