New Year`s homicide toll rises in El Salvador

San Salvador: The Central American nation of El Salvador is off to a bloody start to the new year after a shockingly violent 2015.

Officials say at least 29 people were slain on the first day of 2016.

Prosecutors say the worst attack came when armed men in military-type uniforms raided an evening party of suspected gang members and killed six in the town of El Zapote, 130 kilometers southeast of the capital. It followed a pre-dawn slaying of five people in Los Cerritos, 160 kilometers east of the capital. Police also say they killed five presumed gang members in another clash.

Officials haven't released homicide figures for 2015, but local news media estimate the number of killings at well above 6,000.