At the least seven houses have been destroyed and 50 others have been affected within the quake, the Ecuadoran authorities mentioned on Saturday. The facade of 1 constructing rained down on a car in Cuenca, killing at the very least one particular person, and 17 instructional buildings in addition to 31 health-care-related constructions have been additionally affected.
The dome of the Virgen De La Nube Church in La Troncal was severely cracked, leaving holes within the partitions of its clock tower, photographs posted on social media confirmed.
In Peru, native media reported {that a} 4-year-old woman within the area of Tumbes was killed after her dwelling collapsed, citing an announcement from Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otárola.
Ecuador has a historical past of deadly earthquakes and intense seismic exercise. The nation of roughly 17.Eight million folks in 2016 skilled an enormous 7.8-magnitude catastrophe within the northwest that killed a whole lot. Earthquakes in northern Ecuador additionally killed at the very least 1,000 folks in 1987, in what was one in every of its most devastating pure disasters.
Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso mentioned on Saturday that he had visited the hard-hit metropolis of Machala, the place he assessed the harm and met with victims in a hospital.
“I’ve needed to precise solidarity with the households of the useless and solidarity with these injured within the earthquake,” he mentioned.
Samantha Schmidt contributed to this report.
