Story highlights El Salvador is one of the world's deadliest countries

Killings peaked in 2015, with 103 homicides per 100,000 people

(CNN) The killings stopped for a day in El Salvador.

The small Central American country with one of the worst murder rates in the world went 24 hours without

a single homicide, said Howard Augusto Cotto of the National Civil Police.

Wednesday marked the first day in two years without a homicide, Cotto said at a news conference Thursday. There was one death that day, but police were not counting it as a murder/violent death since the deceased had been injured a few days earlier, he said.

The number of murders declined last month, Howard Augusto Cotto says.

In addition, December recorded the least murders in 2016, Cotto said. He provided no explanation for the decline in violence last month or for Wednesday's 24 hours with any killings.

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