A man takes a photo of a collapsed building after an earthquake shook Machala, Ecuador, on Saturday.
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A man takes a photo of a collapsed building after an earthquake shook Machala, Ecuador, on Saturday.
Johnny Crespo/AP
QUITO, Ecuador — A powerful earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 14 people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams into the streets filled with debris and downed power lines.
The US Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 centered just off the Pacific Coast, about 50 miles south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second largest city. One of the victims died in Peru, while 13 others died in Ecuador, where authorities also reported that at least 126 people were injured.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso told reporters that the earthquake “without a doubt … generated alarm in the population.” Lasso’s office said in a statement that 11 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. Peru’s Prime Minister Alberto Otárola said a 4-year-old girl died from head trauma she suffered when her home collapsed 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 many people were trapped under rubble. In Machala community, a two-storey house collapsed before people could be evacuated, a pier gave way and the walls of a building collapsed, trapping an unknown number of people.
A police officer looks up next to a car crushed by debris after an earthquake shook Cuenca, Ecuador, on Saturday.
Xavier Caivinagua/AP
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A police officer looks up next to a car crushed by debris after an earthquake shook Cuenca, Ecuador, on Saturday.
Xavier Caivinagua/AP
The agency said firefighters worked to rescue people while the National Police assessed the damage, their work hampered by downed lines that disrupted telephone and electricity service.
Machala resident Fabricio Cruz said he was in his third-floor apartment when he felt a strong tremor and saw his television set hit the ground. He immediately went out.
“I heard my neighbors screaming and the noise,” said Cruz, a 34-year-old photographer. He added that when he looked around, he noticed the collapsed roofs of nearby houses.
The Ecuadorian government also reported damage to health care centers and schools. Lasso said he will travel on Saturday to El Oro.
In Guayaquil, about 170 miles southwest of the capital, Quito, authorities reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as several collapsed walls. Authorities ordered the closure of three vehicular tunnels in Guayaquil, which anchors a metro area of more than 3 million people.
Videos shared on social media show people gathering in the streets of Guayaquil and nearby communities. People have reported objects falling inside their homes.
A video posted online showed three anchors of a show dart from their studio desk as the set shakes. At first they tried to dismiss it as a minor earthquake but soon ran away from the camera. One anchor indicated that the show would go into a commercial break, while another repeated, “My God, my God.”
Luis Tomalá was fishing with others when the earthquake hit. He said their boat started moving “like a racehorse, we got scared, and when we turned on the radio, we heard about the earthquake.” That’s when his group decided, Tomá said, to stay at sea for fear of a tsunami.
A report from Ecuador’s Adverse Events Monitoring Directorate dismissed the threat of a tsunami.
Peruvian authorities say the old walls of an Army barracks in Tumbes have collapsed.
Especially Ecuador prone to earthquakes. In 2016, a the earthquake was centered farther north on the Pacific Coast in a less populated area of the country killed more than 600 people.
Machala student Katherine Cruz said her home shook so badly she couldn’t even get up to leave her room and fled to the street.
“It’s horrible. I’ve never felt like this in my life,” he said.