Hurricane Stan slammed ashore on Mexico's oil-rich Gulf coast on Tuesday but was downgraded to a tropical storm by the end of the day, drenching much of the country's south after killing at least 58 people.

The storm packed maximum sustained winds of 130 kph as it made landfall near Punta Roca Partida, 120 kilometres southeast of the port city of Veracruz.

In the nearby city of San Andres Tuxtla, the storm uprooted trees and ripped roofs off houses.

Stan killed two people in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, said Leonardo Munoz Arellano with the Chiapas civil protection office.

In El Salvador the death toll blamed on the torrential rains that have been falling since the weekend rose to 39 as a mudslide buried six people in San Jacinto, southwest of the capital San Salvador.

More than 14,000 people fled their homes, not only because of the storm, but also as a result of Saturday's eruption of the Santa Ana volacano, which killed two people.

Dozens of communities, most of them along the coastal region, were flooded as rivers burst their banks.

In Nicaragua, Stan was blamed for 10 deaths, including a 99-year-old man buried under a landslide. Another four were reported killed in Honduras.

Authorities said the storm caused three more deaths and left 47 people wounded in Guatemala, where more than 2,700 people evacuated their homes threatened by flooding.

The storm dumped torrential rains over much of southern Mexico, and earlier forced the evacuation of 270 workers from offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The port of Veracruz, Mexico's main eastern port, was closed during the day because of gigantic waves up to five metres (16 feet) tall and powerful winds.

By late Tuesday some 12,000 people had been evacuated, said Governor Fidel Herrera.

Small groups of Mexican Navy sailors were among the few who ventured onto the darkened streets of downtown Veracruz, a colonial port city, in lashing rain and high winds that snapped branches from palm trees.

Fishing launches hauled out of the sea ahead of Stan's arrival lined the shorefront, parked like cars. Rainwater poured off the balconies of Spanish colonial buildings.

Gusts blew the roofs off poor residents' flimsy shacks, injuring four people in the state of Veracruz, and hundreds were evacuated when rivers overflowed.

Veracruz city resident Juan Alvarado, 52, feared for his wood and tin home. "I am worried the wind will take it away. My three children are there," he said.

"There are no deaths but things are difficult. It is too much water," said a spokeswoman for the state civil protection agency.

Rain lashed a shantytown on the outskirts of Veracruz, where residents watched the water swell from a lagoon into neighbours' homes, and debated whether to flee to shelters.

"If it rises any more we'll have to go," said Carolina Cagaltoto, a 25 year-old mother of two. "But I don't want to go because (people) are stealing."

Mexico closed its main oil exporting ports - Dos Bocas, Cayo Arcos and Coatzacoalcos - but it was unclear if deliveries would be affected.

State oil monopoly Pemex evacuated 270 workers from five oil exploration platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Stan's arrival.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre warned that the driving rain could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in the states of Veracruz and Puebla.

The storm is the 10th Atlantic hurricane this year. It is likely to further weaken as it hits mountains in eastern Mexico over the next hours.

This year's Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, has been one of the deadliest and most active on record.

Hurricane Katrina, which slammed ashore on the US Gulf of Mexico coast on August 29, ravaged New Orleans and coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, killing more than 1,200 people and becoming the deadliest storm to hit the United States since 1928.

Source: China Daily