An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 leaves 14 dead in Ecuador and Peru

First modification: 03/19/2023 – 07:37

The tremor was registered at 12:12 local time (17:12 GMT) and had its epicenter in the Ecuadorian municipality of Balao, some 140 km from the port of Guayaquil, and at a depth of 44 km, authorities reported. The presidency of Ecuador gave a report of 13 deaths, 11 in the province of El Oro and two in the province of Azuay. The previous balance was 12 dead.

In the Peruvian city of Tumbes, on the border with Ecuador, a four-year-old girl died from a brick hit on the head, according to an official report. “There where the pool of blood is, I was playing with my other niece and a block fell on her,” David Alvarado, the minor’s uncle, told AFP. The tremor was felt most strongly in southern Ecuador, where terrified people took to the streets. One of the most affected cities was Cuenca.

“People ran out, they screamed in despair, all the people got out of the cars (…) desperate, they ran, they screamed, they cried,” Magaly Escandón, a sewing goods vendor in that area city, told AFP. andean. The Presidency of Ecuador reported that “there are injured people who are being treated promptly in hospitals,” but did not give figures. President Guillermo Lasso traveled to El Oro, where he visited the wounded in a hospital, and then he will go to Azuay. “I have just finished the visit to the city of Machala (…) I have ratified the support of the government, the availability of resources,” Lasso said in a video posted on Twitter.

– “Call for calm” –

Collapsed buildings, cracked walls, vehicles crushed by debris. In the historic center of Cuenca there was also damage to some old houses. The movement was strongly felt in other cities such as Quito, Manabí and Manta, according to users on social networks. Lasso made a “call for calm and information through official channels.” Some roads near Cuenca were blocked by landslides after the earthquake. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) the event had a magnitude of 6.8.

In a statement, the Chilean government expressed its “solidarity” with the victims in Ecuador and assured that so far there are no reports of Chileans affected by the earthquake. With less intensity, the tremor shook the north and central coast of Peru. In Tumbes, the earthquake left 46 people affected and 12 homes damaged, according to an official report. Seismological authorities of that country reported an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 but hours later they corrected the measurement to 6.7.

– Two per year –

Since noon, firefighters and police have been working to remove debris and rescue potential victims. The memory of the devastating earthquake of 2016 gravitates in Ecuador. With a magnitude of 7.8 degrees, the earthquake left 673 dead and destroyed coastal towns, with losses close to 3,300 million dollars.

“It is a relatively high magnitude for what we have in the country. In the area of ​​the Gulf of Guayaquil we have been having more or less from 2017 onwards around two earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 5.0 per year,” Mario said. Ruiz, director of the Ecuadorian Geophysical Institute, in an interview with FM Mundo radio.

According to the Ecuadorian Risk Management Secretariat, in Cuenca the facade of a house collapsed on a vehicle and left a person dead. “I’m nervous, I wouldn’t even want to wake up here,” Carmelita Salazar, owner of the affected house, told AFP. Nearby, in the province of El Oro, three deaths were recorded from the fall of a tower. A first aftershock of magnitude 4.8 was recorded in Balao, Ecuador.

“After 12:13 p.m., the biggest aftershock occurred at 12:22 p.m. We have about eight aftershocks,” Ruiz said. The Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute of the Ecuadorian Navy assured that the tremor “does not meet the necessary conditions to generate a tsunami” in the Pacific.