Ashish Ranjan
On Saturday, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru, killing at least 15 people, burying several others under wreckage, and sending rescue teams into streets littered with debris and downed power lines.
Approximately 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey to have been centred just off the Pacific Coast. One victim died in Peru, while at least 13 others perished in Ecuador, where authorities also reported at least 126 injuries.
President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador told reporters that the earthquake had “without a doubt… caused alarm among the populace.” In a statement, the office of Lasso stated that eleven of the victims perished in the coastal state of El Oro and two in the state of Azuay in the highlands.
The quake was felt throughout Peru, from its northern frontier with Ecuador to its central Pacific coast. According to Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola, a 4-year-old girl suffered fatal head injuries when her residence collapsed in the Tumbes region, near the border with Ecuador.
One of the victims in Azuay was a passenger in a vehicle that was crushed by debris from a home in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat.
The agency also reported that a number of individuals were buried in El Oro. In Machala, a two-story residence collapsed before residents could evacuate, a pier gave way, and the walls of a building cracked, trapping an undetermined number of residents.
The agency reported that firefighters were rescuing people while the National Police assessed the damage, a task made more difficult by severed power and telephone lines.Fabricio Cruz, a resident of Machala, stated that he was in his apartment on the third floor when he felt an intense tremor and saw his television fall to the ground. He promptly departed.
A 34-year-old photographer named Cruz remarked, “I heard my neighbours shouting and there was a lot of noise.” When he looked around, he observed the collapsed roofs of neighbouring homes, he said.The government of Ecuador also reported damage to hospitals and institutions. Lasso stated that he would travel to El Oro on Saturday.
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Approximately 270 kilometres (170 miles) southwest of the capital, Quito, in Guayaquil, authorities reported cracks in structures and homes, as well as some collapsed walls. Authorities ordered the closure of three vehicular tunnels in the metropolis of Guayaquil, which is home to more than 3 million people.
