Ecuador is in a state of emergency on Sunday after a strong earthquake struck off the country’s central coast, killing at least 233 people and injuring almost 600 (Update at 4 p.m.: The death toll has increased to 238 with more than 1,500 injured). The death toll is expected to increase because the most powerful quake to strike the country since 1979 was centered around sparsely populated areas, including beaches that are popular tourists spots. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake was felt across the country and tremors were even felt in neighboring Colombia and Peru. At least 135 aftershocks have been reported.
President Rafael Correa took to Twitter to update the number of people who had been killed by the quake after reports on Sunday morning put the number of dead at 77.
“There are people trapped in various places and we are starting rescue operations,” Vice President Jorge Glas said on Sunday morning before traveling to the affected area. Pedernales, a town of 40,000 people near the epicenter of the quake, appeared to be among the worst affected. “This wasn’t just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town,” Pedernales Mayor Gabriel Alcivar said. “What happened here in Pedernales is catastrophic.” Landslides are making it difficult to reach the worst affected areas, authorities warned. And to make matters worse, weather forecasters say that heavy rainfall is expected around the area, which will likely complicate rescue efforts even more.
The quake comes shortly after Japan, which is on the opposite side of the Pacific, suffered two strong earthquakes since Thursday that killed at least 41 people and injured 1,500. Ecuador and Japan are both in was the third to strike in the area around the edges of the Pacific Ocean that is known as the “Ring of Fire,” where approximately 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur. A smaller 6.1-magnitude earthquake also struck the Pacific island nation of Tonga on Sunday but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Ecuador earthquake was about six times stronger than the most powerful quake that struck Japan, according to David Rothery, a professor of geosciences at The Open University northeast of London. Around 14,600 security forces have been deployed to help the rescue effort and Colombia and Mexico are sending expert teams to assist.
Photo by MARCOS PIN MENDEZ/AFP/Getty Images
This post has been updated with new information since it was originally published.
