At least 12 people are killed in a 6.7-magnitude earthquake in Ecuador

A powerful earthquake struck 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 6.8-magnitude earthquake that had its epicenter off the Pacific coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city.

Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso said in a televised address to the nation that the quake had claimed 12 lives.

One of the victims was a passenger in a car that was smashed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to the Secretariat of Risk Management, the emergency response agency for the South American country.

The agency stated that three people died in the coastal state of El Oro, and a number of them were trapped under the rubble. In the town of Machala, a two-storey house collapsed before people could evacuate, a sidewalk collapsed and the walls of the building cracked, trapping an unknown number of people.

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 cut telephone and electricity service.

In Guayaquil, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Quito, authorities reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as some collapsed walls. Authorities have ordered the closure of three car tunnels in Guayaquil, which dock in a metro area home to more than 3 million people.

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

One video posted online showed three presenters parading from their studio desk while the set shook. They initially try to dismiss it as a simple earthquake but quickly flee the camera. One announcer noted that the show would be on commercial hiatus, while another repeated “Oh my God, my God”.

A report from Ecuador’s Directorate for Adverse Event Control ruled out a tsunami threat.

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. The authorities said the old walls of the army barracks had collapsed in the northern district of Tumbes.

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.

Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano contributed to this report from Caracas, Venezuela.

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