Papers express Salvador's renewed agony

The country is burying quake victims for a second time

"More grief!" cried the headline on El Salvador's El Diario de Hoy on Wednesday after the country was hit by a second major earthquake in just over a month.

The paper covered its front page with a picture showing the body of a 28-year-old woman being pulled out of the rubble by her relatives.

Hundreds were injured in the new disaster

"Help El Salvador!", the daily pleaded.

Today the country is a "valley of hammocks" with thousands left homeless, it said.

Comparisons

The paper highlighted the fact that this time the quake affected different areas to the disaster that struck on 13 Jaunuary.

La Prensa Grafica also drew comparisons with last month's quake in its editorial entitled "The destruction continues".

"Everywhere, this new quake has served to make more acute the already profound ravages of a month ago," the paper said.

But it suggested that lessons learnt from January were already proving useful this time.

The president has repeated his call for calm

La Prensa Grafica

"The urgent need for reconstruction materials has received a good deal of attention, especially in institutional areas".

The daily went on to stress the need for calm.

"As a result of this latest alarming upheaval, the president of the republic has repeated his call for calm... although for many it will be all but impossible to keep their spirits up in such unstable conditions."

"What alarmism does is heighten insecurity and feed fear, which can be just as damaging as the calamities themselves," the paper insisted.

El Diario de Hoy was even more direct.

"Reconstruction will progress as long as we all help one another, our efforts are not politicised and hatred and discord are not sown among us."

In the face of adversity

Columnist Cecina de Choussy chose to stress the examples of "spontaneous solidarity" she saw as people responded to the new crisis.

She described the heroic efforts of communities across the country and praised the spirit of those involved in saving and rebuilding lives.

"Many of these expressions have served to greatly mitigate the pain and trauma of those worst affected, especially the children, who become the most vulnerable in these crises," she said.

She paid tribute to private helicopter pilots who began an "intense search for people at high risk" in the early hours after the quake.

She also mentioned women and youngsters who gathered food and essentials to be airlifted to the victims, as well as "prominent businessmen who hurried to offer their expertise and knowledge".

"It is these not-always-organised expressions that we must hold on to... in order to unite in the task of building up our country," she concluded.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.