A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Central America, killing at least one person and prompting a brief tsunami warning.
Electricity was cut off in parts of El Salvador and beyond and walls crumbled, but there were no reports of widespread damage.
The quake hit in the Pacific Ocean 170km southeast of the capital San Salvador, at a depth of 70km, the US Geological Survey said.
The earthquake's magnitude was initially given as 7.4 but then lowered to 7.3.
The rumbling was felt all along the Central American coast, from Guatemala in the north to Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the south and inland to Honduras.
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In El Salvador, a man died when an electrical pylon fell on him in the city of San Miguel, its mayor Wilfredo Salgado told YSKL radio.
"It was strong when it started to rumble, and it would not stop. My family just prayed and asked God for it to stop," Maria Etelvina Deras, who lives in Usulutan, 110km southeast of the capital, told the radio station.
"All I could see was that things in the house were moving, and my wife grabbed me and took me out to the courtyard of the house and we waited for it to stop. It was ugly," said Ruben Aguirre in Zacatecoluca, another town southeast of the capital.
Crews were combing affected areas in search of possible victims and to assess damage, Salvadoran Civil Protection chief Jorge Melendez said.
Walls of some buildings fell, mayor Salgado said, but there were no other immediate reports of injuries.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center quickly issued a warning for coastal areas located within 300km of the epicentre, but lifted the alert minutes later.
"Any remaining threat should be evaluated by local authorities in impacted areas," the US agency said.
Electricity was knocked out in some eastern provinces of El Salvador.
