People started screaming and running to the church but many were hit before they could get there Ken Hawkins, eyewitness

Witnesses said the steps of the cathedral were littered with bodies. Freelance photographer Ken Hawkins told the Los Angeles Times there had been no warning from government forces before the shooting started.

"There was a continual burst of very heavy fire for about two and a half to three minutes," he said. "People started screaming and running to the church but many were hit before they could get there."

The left-wing group is currently holding a number of hostages at French and Costa Rican embassies in the city. The Costa Rican ambassador, Julio Esquivel, was released yesterday but France's ambassador, Michel Dondenne, and seven others are still held hostage.

It is demanding the release of five of its leaders but the military government, under Gen Humberto Romero, claims it is holding only two.

Fifty years of violence

Violent clashes between police and protesters are an all-too-familiar sight in El Salvador.

Trouble peaked some 50 years ago when a peasant revolt, in protest of the abject poverty many were forced to live in, led to the killing of 30,000 people and came to be known as La Matanza (the Slaughter).

Two years ago, Gen Romero came to power in what was widely regarded as a rigged election.

Anti-government demonstrators gathered in the capital's main square and were fired on by government troops who killed about 50 people. Since then, left-wing groups such as the People's Revolutionary Army have carried out murders and bombings killing dozens of policemen.

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