15 killed as 6.8 quake jolts Ecuador, Peru

Quito (Ecuador), March 19

A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 15 persons, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with debris and fallen power lines.

The US Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 that was centered just off the Pacific Coast, about 50 miles (80 km) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city. One of the victims died in Peru, while 14 others died in Ecuador, where the authorities also reported that at least 126 persons were injured.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso told the media the earthquake had “without a doubt ... generated alarm in the population”. Lasso’s office, in a statement, said 12 of the victims died in the coastal state of El Oro and two in the highlands state of Azuay.

In Peru, the earthquake was felt from its northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast. Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otárola said a four-year-old girl died from head trauma she suffered in the collapse of her home in the Tumbes region, on the border with Ecuador.

One of the victims in Azuay was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to the Risk Management Secretariat, Ecuador’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-storey 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. — AP

Strongest since 2016

• The epicentre was near Balao, 80 km from Guayaquil city where about three million people live
• The southern province of El Oro was the worst affected and 12 persons died there, authorities said
• This is the strongest quake to hit Ecuador since 2016, when nearly 700 people died and thousands were injured

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