At least twelve dead, one injured and damage to buildings caused by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake that shook southern Ecuador and reached its neighbor Peru, according to an official balance.
“So far, 12 deaths have been reported, 11 in the province of El Oro and one in the province of Azuay,” the Ecuadorian presidency said in a tweet. The tremor was registered at 12:12 local time (17:12 GMT) and had its epicenter in the Ecuadorian municipality of Balao, some 140 kilometers from the port of Guayaquil, and at a depth of 44 kilometers, authorities reported.
In the south of the country it was felt strongly and people took to the streets in panic, while some walls collapsed in cities like Cuenca, one of the most affected.
“I went out into the street because I saw people starting to run terrified, getting out of the cars,” Magaly Escandón, a sewing goods vendor in that Andean city, told AFP.
The movement was strongly felt in other cities such as Quito, Manabí and Manta, according to users on social networks.
The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, called for calm and for information through official channels.