South America: Death toll rises to 15 in Ecuador and Peru earthquakes

At least 15 people were killed and several others injured on Saturday after an earthquake hit southern Ecuador and Peru, according to a new official report released on Sunday.

According to the USGS, the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.8. Officials in Ecuador put it at 6.5, and those in Peru at 6.7. In Ecuador, the president’s office announced that 14 people were killed and several others were injured in El Oro and Azuay provinces in the southwest of the country.

A four-year-old girl died after being hit on the head by bricks in the Peruvian city of Tumbes, which borders Ecuador, authorities said. “Where’s the pool of blood, she was playing with my other niece and a block fell on her,” the child’s uncle, David Alvarado, told AFP.

Collapsed buildings

The earthquake struck at 12:12 p.m. (6:12 p.m. in Switzerland), at a depth of 44 km, centered in the town of Palau, about 140 km south of Ecuador’s major port of Guayaquil. This caused panic among the people who were picketing in the streets. Houses collapsed in several cities, including Cuenca, in Azuay province, one of the worst-hit states.

“I went to the street because I saw people running, scared, others getting out of cars,” Magali Escandon, a sewing material seller in this Andean town, told AFP. “They were running, screaming, crying.”

In Cuenca’s historic center, AFP journalists saw collapsed buildings, damaged old houses, cracked walls and vehicles crushed by debris. Many roads in the city have been cut off due to landslides caused by the earthquake. Ecuadorian authorities reported 360 buildings destroyed or damaged in the country. 22 landslides were reported in Azuay province.

Call for peace

According to testimonies on social networks, the earthquake was felt even in the capital Quito. “I appeal for calm and information through official channels,” tweeted Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso, who immediately traveled to El Oro province and then to Cuenca to “see the damage.”

Brazil expressed its solidarity with the two affected countries on Sunday, as Chile had already done the day before, saying it was “ready to provide all assistance to the authorities to respond to the humanitarian emergency”. The memory of the devastating earthquake that rocked Ecuador in 2016 still lingers in the country. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed 673 people and destroyed coastal villages. Losses are estimated at more than three billion euros.

Local radio FM Mundo Mario Ruiz, director of Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute, explained about Saturday’s earthquake, “It’s (…) a relatively high magnitude for the country.” “Since 2017 (…) in the Gulf of Guayaquil there have been two earthquakes greater than 5.0 per year,” he recalled. “After 12:13 p.m., the biggest tremor occurred at 12:22,” Mario Ruiz added, noting that there were eight tremors in total.

(AFP)