More than a dozen families have abandoned their homes in two rural communities following threats from gang members, police in El Salvador said Wednesday.
Local police commissioner Milton Salguero said that a dozen families from the community of Tunamiles in Sonsonate department, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) west of the capital, started packing up Saturday.
Salguero blamed the exodus on a rumour started during a turnover of police and military forces in the area. Families thinking they would be left without protection from the gangs chose to pack up and flee.
"It was six hours and in that time the rumour started and the people left to a more secure area," Salguero said. "But they did not all go, about six families stayed."
Bad roads in the mountainous area make access difficult, said Salguero. Gangs are prevalent and prey on workers from coffee plantations.
He said the rumour reached another community, Chapparon, where five more families packed up and left.
The commissioner stressed that the situation was returning to normal because "as police we are guaranteeing security through a permanent presence and reinforced by various units."
Residents loading their few possessions into trucks on Tuesday declined to give their names out of fear. They said gang members had gone house to house threatening families.
The move comes after four members of one family were killed on April 27 in a turf battle. Some families said that even with police present they no longer felt safe.
Gang violence in El Salvador has surged in recent weeks, with authorities counting 29 murders on Monday, the country's deadliest day of the year.
The minister of justice and public safety, Benito Lara, said the spike in violence was the gangs' response to government crime fighting. One of those efforts was the transfer of more than 2,400 gang members to different prisons to interrupt their ability to manage their organizations from behind bars.
There were 3,942 murders in 2014, or 1,429 more than the year before.
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