At least two people died and three went missing in Southern Mexico, and 125 people were left homeless in northern Guatemala as hurricane Ernesto lashed through the region, officials said Wednesday.

The bodies of two young fishermen, 14 years and 22 years old respectively, were found Wednesday morning near the village of El Conchal, in Chiapas' Arriaga municipality in southern Mexico, said the country' s Civil Protection Direction's Regional Chief Jaime Marroquin at a press conference.

The two fishermen had apparently sailed out in a canoe which capsized in strong winds.

Another three fishermen have been missing since Tuesday, after sailing out Monday from the town of Boca del Cielo, Chiapas.

Jose Alfredo Ramos, a municipal official, said that about 20 small boats and a light aircraft of Civil Protection launched a sea and land search operation Wednesday morning to locate the three young fishermen, but there was no news as yet.

Port authorities in Chiapas banned boats from navigation due to the strong winds and waves caused by Ernesto, Ramos said.

In Mexico's neighboring Guatemala, at least 125 people were left homeless and some 24 houses damaged as hurricane Ernesto moved through the country' s northern region, the Guatemala national disaster prevention agency CONRED said Wednesday.

CONRED issued a statement saying continuous rain was affecting several regions in Peten province since late Thursday, causing rising river levels and fears of flooding among local residents.

The Guatemalan weather services said Ernesto had weakened from a category-1 hurricane to a tropical storm as it moved towards the Gulf of Mexico.

CONRED declared an orange alert, one level below the maximum red alert, and shipped several tons of food and equipment to some regions in northern

Guatemala as a preventive measure.

According to experts, Ernesto is the second hurricane and the fifth tropical wave in the Atlantic since the hurricane season started on June 1. It moved over Jamaica, Honduras, and approached Mexico on Aug. 8 from its Yucatan Peninsula.