Honduras issued a red alert Wednesday over heavy rains in the south of the country, ordering evacuations because of dangerously surging river levels.

The 48-hour highest-level alert was for the Choluteca province, with the evacuations in at-risk areas aimed at "saving lives," the government's COPECO emergency planning commission said in a statement.

A second-level yellow alert was issued for the Francisco Morazan province, where the capital is located, and the southern Valle region. That entailed monitoring of the situation and some preventive evacuations from areas close to rivers.

The heavy precipitation came from a low-pressure system, the country's weather center said.