HMS Sheffield: mission to help Honduras

The West Indies guardship HMS Sheffield is heading into Honduran waters, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed on Saturday.

The frigate, which is carrying a Lynx helicopter and nearly 300 personnel, was already on standby in the area.

Torrential rains in Nicaragua and Honduras eased off for the first time in five days, allowing emergency services to reach some flood victims in the worst affected areas.

Governments of both countries have called for urgent international help. Some 350 people have been killed in Honduras, and at least another 70 in Nicaragua.

Homeless victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras

Downgraded from a hurricane on Friday, the storm destroyed vast areas of remote and desperately poor countryside.

One Honduran family lost six children in a mudslide, and a sailing ship with 30 people on board is missing off the coast.

Although the country's capital, Tegucigalpa, sits high above sea level, flooding there has brought down bridges and destroyed whole suburbs.

Wading to safety

And in the city of Comayagua, the Salistroso River washed away 150 homes and 27 lives.

The Honduran government estimates that the storm has affected two million of its six million inhabitants.

BBC Central America correspondent Peter Greste says that with only minimal health-care facilities in the region the danger of disease is likely to push the death toll much higher.