Magnitude 7.8 Quake Leaves 41 Dead In Ecuador
KABUL: (MEP) A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the north-west Pacific coast of Ecuador late on Saturday killing at least 41 people, authorities said.
The quake was centered 16 miles southeast of Muisne, Ecuador, the United States Geological Survey said.
“A state of emergency was now in effect and added that preventive evacuations in coastal areas were underway because of possible tsunami risks” Jorge Glas, Vice-President told the nation Saturday night in a televised address.
Local residents say “My building moved a lot and things fell to the floor. Lots of neighbours were screaming and kids crying.”
Social media pictures showed a collapsed bridge in Guayaquil and a collapsed tower at an airport in the city of Manta.
“There is considerable damage in the area of the epicentre and also as far away as places like the city of Guayaquil,” the Geophysics Institute said in a bulletin.
Among the dead was a minor who fell down the stairs in a mall in Guayaquil, and another who died after the collapse of a bridge in the city, according to reports from the television station Teleamazonas.
Adriana Villacís, a 40-year-old nurse, was with her husband and 4-year-old son at a supermarket about 30 minutes from the capital of Quito when, she said, she began to see groceries fall to the floor.
“The first thing I did was protect my son and look for the exit, but a part of the roof fell and I was frozen,” she said. “Thank God we weren’t physically harmed, but the shock caused my child to vomit.”
Elsewhere in the city of 2 million people, shoppers were shaken by the quake. Video from a store showed kitchen utensils and pans hanging from an end cap swinging slightly back and forth and some items falling off shelves.
