A powerful earthquake toppled more than two dozen homes in Honduras and Belize early Thursday, 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 2:24 am (4:24 am EDT; 0824 GMT) off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, 80 miles (130 kilometers) north-east of the beach town of La Ceiba, according to the US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.
``People were running for the door,' Alfredo Cedeno said from the reception desk at the Gran Hotel Paris in La Ceiba. ``You could really feel it and you could see it _ the water came out of the pool.' Reynaldo Funez, 15, was buried in his house in Pineda de la Lima, 120 miles (200 kilometers) north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and 6-year-old Deily Yazmin Santos was killed when her house collapsed in the beach town of Morazan, national fire commander Colonel Carlos Cordero said.