At least 12 people were killed in a strong earthquake that struck Ecuador and northern Peru Ecuador

A powerful earthquake rocked southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 12 people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams into streets strewn with rubble and downed power lines.

The USGS reported a 6.7-magnitude earthquake in the country’s coastal region of Guayas. It was centered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Guayaquil, which has a metropolitan area of ​​more than 3 million people.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso said in a televised address that the earthquake claimed 12 lives. In a tweet, he also asked people to remain calm.

Cristian Torres, head of the Risk Management Secretariat, Ecuador’s emergency response agency, said in a radio interview that 11 of the victims died in the coastal state of El Oro and one in the highland state of Azuay.

The agency said the victim in the Andean region of Cuenca, in Azuay, was a passenger in a car that crashed into the rubble of a house.

In the coastal state of El Oro, people were trapped under rubble, the agency reported. In the town of Machala, a two-storey house collapsed before people could be evacuated, a sidewalk collapsed and the building’s walls cracked, trapping an unknown number of people.

Machala resident Fabricio Cruz said he was in his apartment on the third floor when he felt a strong jolt and saw his TV hit the floor. Head right away.

“I could hear how my neighbors were screaming and there was a lot of noise,” said Cruz, a 34-year-old photographer. He added that when he looked around, he noticed the rooftops of nearby houses collapsing.

The agency said firefighters worked to rescue people while the National Police assessed the damage, and their work was made more difficult by downed lines that disrupted telephone and electricity services.

In Guayaquil, about 170 miles southwest of the capital, Quito, authorities reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as some collapsed walls. Authorities ordered three tunnels to be closed to vehicles.

Videos shared on social media show people huddled in the streets of Guayaquil and nearby communities, and people have reported falling objects inside their homes.

Video posted online showed three television presenters rushing from their studio desk as the set shook. They initially try to dismiss the tremors as a minor earthquake but quickly flee the camera. One announcer indicated that the show would go on commercial hiatus, while another repeated, “Oh my God, my God.”

A report from Ecuador’s Directorate of Adverse Event Control ruled out a tsunami risk.

The earthquake was also felt in Peru, from its northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or injuries. In the northern district of Tumbes, authorities said the old walls of the army barracks collapsed.

Ecuador is particularly prone to earthquakes. In 2016, an earthquake centered north on the Pacific coast in a sparsely populated part of the country killed more than 600 people.

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