At least 40 people in El Salvador have died after three days of rain, officials said Sunday.

Salvadoran Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said deaths were reported in at least five of the 14 provinces of the tiny, mountainous Central American country.

Reuters news agency put the death toll as high as 54.

The rains were caused by a low pressure system off the country's Pacific coast, meteorologists said.

Dave Roberts of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said while the presence of Hurricane Ida in the Caribbean may have played some indirect role in helping steer the system, the deaths are not directly linked to the hurricane.

Ida made landfall Thursday over east-central Nicaragua, destroying hundreds of homes and power lines, before weakening to a tropical storm.

Ida then regained strength to become a Category 2 hurricane Sunday afternoon, with winds sustained winds of 160 km/ and stronger gusts as it passed near the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

With files from The Associated Press