Authorities said a powerful earthquake that shook Peru and Ecuador Saturday killed at least 14 people, injured several others, and damaged buildings.
Buildings were destroyed, vehicles were crushed, and debris could be seen in Ecuadorian cities such as Machala and Cuenca, as rescuers rushed to help and panicked residents ran into the streets.
The quake struck at 12:12 p.m. local time, with a magnitude of 6.8 and a depth of nearly 41 miles (66 kilometers), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) (1712 GMT).
According to authorities, the epicenter was in the Ecuadorian municipality of Balao, near the border with Peru.
Remaining calm through the earthquake
(Photo : ARIEL SUAREZ/AFP via Getty Images)
"I went out into the street because I saw people panicking and getting out of their cars," Magaly Escandon, a Cuenca sewing supplies saleswoman, told AFP, as per Phys.org.
The presidency of Ecuador reported 13 deaths, 11 in the province of El Oro and two in the province of Azuay.
According to an official report, a four-year-old girl died after a brick hit her on the head in the Peruvian city of Tumbes, near the border with Ecuador.
"I was playing with my niece there where the pool of blood is, and a brick fell on her," her uncle David Alvarado told AFP.
According to social media reports, the tremor was also felt strongly in other cities such as Guayaquil, Quito, Manabi, and Manta.
Ecuador's presidency stated that "there are injured people who are being treated promptly in hospitals," but no figures were provided.
President Guillermo Lasso visited the wounded in a hospital in El Oro and will then travel to Azuay.
Earlier in the day, he urged people to "remain calm and informed through official channels" about building damage.
The facade of a house in Cuenca collapsed on a vehicle, leaving "a deceased person," according to Quito's Risk Management Office. Old houses in the city's historic center were also damaged, according to AFP journalists on the ground.
Roads near Cuenca were also obstructed by landslides.
Three people were killed nearby in the province of El Oro when a tower collapsed and crushed them.
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Magnitude 6.8 quake shakes area 50 miles south of Ecuador's second city
On Saturday, a powerful earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru, killing at least 15 people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescuers into streets littered with debris and downed power lines, as per The Guardian.
The US Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 in the country's coastal Guayas region.
Its center was about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Guayaquil, which has a population of more than 3 million people.
The president's office said in a statement that 12 of the victims died in the coastal state of El Oro and two in the highlands state of Azuay. At least 126 people were injured, according to authorities.
Alberto Otárola, Peru's prime minister, said a four-year-old girl died from head trauma sustained in the collapse of her home in the Tumbes region, near the border with Ecuador.
According to Ecuador's emergency response agency, one of the Azuay victims was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca.
Authorities in Guayaquil, about 170 miles southwest of Quito, reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as some, collapsed walls. Three vehicle tunnels have been ordered closed by authorities.
People gathered on the streets of Guayaquil and nearby communities, according to social media videos, and people reported objects falling inside their homes.
One online video showed three TV hosts darting from their studio desks as the set shook. They initially dismissed the tremors as a minor quake, but quickly fled off-camera.
A tsunami threat has been ruled out, according to a report from Ecuador's adverse events monitoring directorate.
Peru felt the earthquake from its northern border with Ecuador to its central Pacific coast. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported.
Authorities reported that the old walls of army barracks in the northern region of Tumbes had collapsed.
Ecuador is particularly prone to earthquakes. In 2016, a quake on the Pacific Coast farther north, in a less densely populated area of the country, killed over 600 people.
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