Ecuador quake toll soars

Desperate search for survivors as number of dead rises to 235

THE death toll from Ecuador’s biggest earthquake in decades soared to at least 235 yesterday as rescuers using tractors and bare hands hunted desperately for survivors in shattered coastal towns.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and collapsing buildings and roads in a swathe of western towns.

More than 1 557 people were injured, authorities said.

The quake, which struck on Saturday night about 170km northwest of Quito, lasted about a minute and was felt across Ecuador, northern Peru and southern Colombia.

“There are villages totally devastated,” Pedernales mayor Gabriel Alcivar said.

Alcivar said dozens had died in the rustic zone.

“Oh my God, it was the biggest and strongest earthquake I have felt in my whole life,” resident Maria Torres, 60, said in Quito.

Officials declared a state of emergency in the six worst-hit provinces.

President Rafael Correa, on a visit to the Vatican, wrote on Twitter that he was immediately returning to Ecuador.

In the Pacific port city of Guayaquil, home to more than two million people, a bridge collapsed, crushing a car beneath it, and residents were picking through the wreckage of houses reduced to heaps of rubble and timber.

Ecuador’s Geophysical Office reported “considerable” structural damage “in the area near the epicentre as well as points as far away as Guayaquil”.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the 7.8-magnitude shallow quake struck off the northwest shore of Ecuador, 27km kilometres from the town of Muisne.

Ecuador, which lies near a shifting boundary between tectonic plates, had suffered seven earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher in the same region since 1900, the USGS said.

One in March 1987 killed about 1 000 people, it said.

“There are people trapped in various places and we are starting rescue operations,” Vice-President Jorge Glas said yesterday before boarding a plane to the area.

At least 55 smaller aftershocks rattled the country after the main quake, Glas said.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre initially issued a warning for the nearby Pacific coastline but later said the threat had largely passed.

Miriam Santana, 40, of the western city of Manta, described scenes of devastation.

“It was as if the world was about to end,“she said by phone.

“Homes were coming down – around my house three homes collapsed, and streetlights fell.

“There are people trapped under the rubble,” she said.

Authorities closed the city’s airport, saying the control tower suffered severe damage.

In northern Quito, people ran out of their homes in terror as power lines swayed and power to some areas was knocked out.

Correa, interviewed by phone on Radio Publica, called for calm and unity. He said rescue teams were flying in from Mexico and Colombia to help search for quake victims.

The quake was also felt in northern Peru and a large section of southern Colombia, according to authorities in those countries, although no casualties were reported.

Peruvian officials however urged coastal residents to stay away from the beach.

Meanwhile, in southern Japan yesterday rescue teams scoured the splintered remains of buildings destroyed by a series of deadly earthquakes as time ran out for finding survivors.

A 7.3-magnitude tremor struck early on Saturday, killing at least 42 people, injuring about 1 000 and causing widespread damage to houses, roads and bridges.

At least one mountain highway was severed in two, with concrete tumbling into the valley below.