The death toll from Ecuador's biggest earthquake in decades soared to at least 233 on Sunday as rescuers using tractors and bare hands hunted desperately for survivors in shattered coastal towns.
The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the Pacific coast on Saturday and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and collapsing buildings and roads in a swathe of western towns.
President Rafael Correa, who was rushing home from a trip to Italy, said the confirmed number of fatalities rose on Sunday to 233. “The immediate priority is to rescue people in the rubble,” he said via Tiwtter.
More than 1,500 people were injured, authorities said.
Coastal areas nearest the quake were worst affected, especially Pedernales, a rustic tourist spot with beaches and palm trees. Information was scant from there due to poor communications and transport chaos.
“There are people trapped in various places and we are starting rescue operations,” Vice President Jorge Glas said on Sunday morning before boarding a plane to the area.
A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.
“There are villages totally devastated,” Pedernales' mayor Gabriel Alcivar told local radio, adding that “dozens and dozens” had died in the rustic zone.
“What happened here in Pedernales is catastrophic.”
Pedernales 'destroyed'
Authorities said there were 135 aftershocks in the Pedernales area.
One photo on social media purporting to be the entrance to Pedernales showed a torn up road with a crushed car in the middle and people standing behind.
Local TV station Televicentro broadcast images from Pedernales showing locals using a small tractor to remove rubble and also search with their hands for people buried underneath. Women cried after a corpse was pulled out. Locals said children were trapped.
One man begged for help: “Pedernales is destroyed.” In Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, rubble lay in the streets and a bridge fell on top of a car.
“It was terrifying, we were all scared and we're still out in the streets because we're worried about aftershocks,” said Guayaquil security guard Fernando Garcia.
About 13,500 security force personnel were mobilized to keep order around Ecuador, and $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated for the emergency, the government said.
Ramon Solorzano, 46, a car parts merchant in the coastal city of Manta, said he was leaving with his family. Photos from Manta showed Red Cross workers arriving, police hunting through debris, a smashed sculpture and badly-damaged buildings.
“Most people are out in the streets with backpacks on, heading for higher ground,” Solorzano said, speaking in a trembling voice on a WhatsApp phone call. “The streets are cracked. The power is out and phones are down.”
Worst quake since 1979
Parts of the highland capital Quito were without power or phone service for several hours but the city government said those services had been restored and there were no reports of casualties in the city.
The government called it the worst quake in the country since 1979. In that disaster, 600 people were killed and 20,000 injured, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Among international aid, Venezuela and Mexico were sending personnel and supplies, the Correa government said.
A tsunami warning was lifted on Saturday night but coastal residents were urged to seek higher ground in case tides rise.
“At first it was light, but it lasted a long time and got stronger,” said Maria Jaramillo, 36, a resident of Guayaquil, describing windows breaking and pieces falling off roofs.
“I was on the seventh floor and the light went off in the whole sector, and we evacuated. People were very anxious in the street ... We left barefoot.”
The OPEC member said oil production was not affected, but closed its main refinery of Esmeraldas, located near the epicenter, as a precautionary measure.
The Ecuadorean quake followed two large and deadly quakes that struck Japan since Thursday. Both countries are located on the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that circles the Pacific, but according to the US Geological Survey large quakes separated by such long distances would probably not be related.
“Even the earth's rocky crust is not rigid enough to transfer stress efficiently over thousands of miles,” it said on its web site. Quakes can cause other big quakes within a range of hundreds of miles, but can cause only small, brief quakes at a distance of thousands of miles, it said.The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along the country's coast, killing at least 77 people and causing damage hundreds of kilometres away from the epicentre in the capital and other major cities.
Vice President Jorge Glas said the death toll will likely rise further in what he called the "worst seismic movement we have faced in decades". The quake is the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, he said.
"At this moment, the number of confirmed deaths has reached 77," Glas said early Sunday, adding more than 588 people were injured.
A state of emergency was declared in the six worst-hit provinces.
Police, the military and the emergency services "are in a state of maximum alert to protect the lives of citizens," Glas said.
Rescuers reached the sparsely populated area of fishing ports and tourist beaches where the magnitude-7.8 quake was centred.
"We're trying to do the most we can but there's almost nothing we can do," said Gabriel Alcivar, mayor of Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the epicentre. He pleaded for authorities to send earth-moving machines and rescuers as dozens of buildings in the town were flattened, trapping residents among the rubble.
He said looting broke out amid the chaos but that authorities were too busy trying to save lives to assert order. "This wasn't just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town," he said.
On social media photos circulated of homes reduced to rubble, the roof of a shopping centre torn apart and supermarket shelves shaking violently.
In Manta, the airport was closed after the control tower collapsed, injuring an air traffic control worker and a security guard.
In the capital Quito, hundreds of kilometres away, people fled to the streets in fear as the quake shook their buildings. The quake knocked out electricity in several neighbourhoods and six homes collapsed but after a few hours the situation appeared under control and power was being restored, Quito's Mayor Mauricio Rodas said.
"I'm in a state of panic," said Zoila Villena, one of many Quito residents who congregated in the streets. "My building moved a lot and things fell to the floor. Lots of neighbours were screaming and kids crying."
More than 10,000 members of the security forces were being mobilised to provide assistance but Glas said accessing what he described as the "disaster" centre was difficult due to landslides.
Among those killed was the driver of a car crushed by an overpass that buckled in Guayaquil, the country's most populous city.
The city's international airport was also briefly closed. Hydroelectric dams and oil pipelines in the OPEC-member nation were shut down as a precautionary measure but so far hadn't reported any damaged.
President Rafael Correa, who is in Rome after attending a Vatican conference Friday, called on Ecuadoreans to stay strong while authorities monitor events.
He said on Twitter he had signed a decree declaring a national emergency but that the earliest he could get back to Ecuador is Sunday afternoon. He said that there were "dozens of dead" from the earthquake.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said hazardous tsunami waves are possible for some coasts.
While the government hadn't issued a tsunami alert, towns near the epicentre were evacuated as a precautionary measure. Glas later said it was safe for coastal residents to return to their homes.
An emergency had been declared in six of Ecuador's 24 provinces, while sporting events and concerts were cancelled until further notice nationwide.
"It's very important that Ecuadoreans remain calm during this emergency," Glas said from Ecuador's national crisis room.
The United States Geological Survey originally put the quake at a magnitude of 7.4 then raised it to 7.8. It had a depth of 19 kilometres. At least 36 aftershocks followed, one as strong as 6 on the Richter scale, and authorities urged residents to brace for even stronger ones in the coming hours and days.
The quake comes on the heels of two deadly earthquakes across the Pacific, in the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck Thursday near Kumamoto, followed by a magnitude-7.3 earthquake just 28 hours later.
The quakes have killed 41 people and injured about 1,500, flattened houses and triggered major landslides.
