A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on
Saturday, killing at least a dozen people, trapping others under
rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with
debris and fallen power lines, Trend reports citing ABC News.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a
magnitude of about 6.8 that was centered just off the Pacific
Coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s
second-largest city.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso told reporters the
earthquake that killed 12 people had “without a doubt … generated
alarm in the population.” In a tweet, he also asked people to
remain calm.
Risk Management Secretary Cristian Torres in a radio interview
said 11 of the victims died in the coastal state of El Oro and one
in the highlands state of Azuay.
The victim in Azuay’s Andean community of Cuenca was a passenger
in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house, according to the Risk
Management Secretariat, the South American country’s emergency
response agency.
In El Oro, the agency also reported that several people were
trapped under rubble. In the community of Machala, a two-story home
collapsed before people could evacuate, a pier gave way and a
building’s walls cracked, trapping an unknown number of people.
The agency said firefighters worked to rescue people while the
National Police assessed damage, their work made more difficult by
downed lines that interrupted telephone and electricity
service.