Peru: Initial estimates indicate that a magnitude 6.7 earthquake that occurred on Saturday in Ecuador and Peru damaged roads, toppled buildings, and killed at least 15 people while injuring over 126 others.
14 fatalities were confirmed by the office of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso after the earthquake struck the coastal Guyas region at around noon. The US Geological Survey states that the epicentre was about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Guayaquil, the second-largest city in Ecuador.
A building collapsed immediately to the south of the epicentre on the island of Jambeli, killing several people in the coastal state of El Oro. In the town of Cuenca, which is inland from the coast, another person is said to have perished while riding in a vehicle that became trapped beneath the wreckage of a collapsing house.
⚡️Destruction in Ecuador after 6.9M earthquake. pic.twitter.com/GQQ20dsjsb
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 18, 2023
According to Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, a 4-year-old girl was killed in the collapse of her home in the border region of Tumbes in Peru, across the border.
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The Risk Management Secretariat of Ecuador reported that homes, businesses, power and energy infrastructure, and roads had all been destroyed in other areas.
Some of the damage was visible in video footage from the affected areas, with clips from Cuenca seemingly capturing the immediate aftermath of the fatality there.
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Ecuador experiences frequent earthquakes as it lies near the point where the South American and Nazca Plates converge. The most significant one in recent years occurred in 2016, with a magnitude of 7.8 and a location near the town of Muisne on the nation's northwest coast.
At least 675 people were killed, 16,000 were hurt, and it cost the economy about $3 billion in damage.
