Apr 10, 9:27 PM EDT
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Large Tsunami like Waves Batter El Salvador, Mexico*

By DIEGO MENDEZ
Associated Press Writer

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- Unusually high Pacific waves battered
beaches from El Salvador to Mexico and carried people out to sea,
prompting authorities in some places to order swimmers out of the water
Tuesday. At least two people were killed.

THE TSUNAMI LIKE WAVES topping 10 feet swept away a dozen swimmers near
La Libertad on Monday, 10 of whom were plucked from the water by boats
and a helicopter, Green Cross emergency worker Jose Larin said. A
35-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were killed.

El Salvador's government advised people "to avoid swimming at our
beaches due to the risk," Interior Minister Miguel Bolanos told a news
conference Tuesday.

Hundreds of miles to the north in Mexico, 16 people were rescued after
being carried away by high surf in the resorts of Acapulco and Mazatlan.
Lifeguards in Mazatlan ordered swimmers out of the water, local media
reported.

The large waves may be the result of swells generated last week by a
powerful storm thousands of miles away off the western coast of South
America, said U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Feltgen.

"It was a very impressive storm, and that storm, of course, is long
dissipated," Feltgen said. "However, the swells from that wave action
would have been going out, and it generally takes about a week's time to
get from there to the Mexican, El Salvador or Costa Rican coast."