A powerful earthquake struck southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 300, leaving people under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), which records seismic activity around the world, said the quake had a magnitude of around 6.8 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter about 80 kilometers south of Guayaquil, the second largest city in Ecuador.
Ecuador’s presidency said at least 14 people had been killed, including 12 in the coastal state of El Oro and two in the mountainous southeastern state of Azuay.
In the Andean community of Cuenca, in Azuay, the passenger of a vehicle that was crushed by the rubble of a house died, according to the Secretariat for Risk Management, Ecuador’s emergency response agency.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health revealed that so far 381 people have been treated in health centers, with the highest number of injuries in the El Pasaje region, in El Oro, where several people were trapped under rubble.
The Risk Management Secretariat said that 44 houses were destroyed and that the quake also damaged 90 houses, 50 schools and 31 health centers, as well as a bridge and several public and private buildings.
In Peru, the quake was felt from the northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast.
The Peruvian Prime Minister, Alberto Otárola, has announced that a 4-year-old girl has died from a head injury suffered after the collapse of a house in the Tumbes region, on the border with Ecuador.
The National Emergency Operations Center of Peru also confirmed the existence of at least 19 people injured and another 73 affected by the earthquake.
The earthquake destroyed four houses in Peru, leaving another five uninhabitable, and damaged another 72 houses, as well as two health centers.
In the southwestern Ecuadorian community of Machala, a two-story house collapsed before people could be evacuated, a pier gave way and the walls of a building cracked, the Risk Management Secretariat said.
The agency also referred to the existence of failures in the electrical and telephone networks, hindering the rescue operations carried out by the Fire Department and the National Police.
In Guayaquil, some 270 kilometers southwest of the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, the authorities reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as some collapsed walls. The authorities ordered the closure of three vehicular tunnels.
Ecuador is particularly prone to earthquakes. In 2016, an earthquake with an epicenter farther north on the Pacific coast, in a less populated part of the country, killed more than 600 people.
Source: TSF
