7.8-magnitude quake brings devastation to cities and villages along Pacific coast, with authorities warning death toll is likely to rise

Ecuador’s most devastating earthquake in 40 years has killed at least 272 people, with bridges buckling and buildings collapsing in Pacific coastal cities and fishing villages.

Authorities warned that the official death toll after the 7.8-magnitude quake was likely to rise, with many people still trapped and rescue efforts in the remote region at the epicentre of the quake hampered by landslides. More than 10,000 troops have been deployed to keep order and help with rescue operations. Venezuela and Mexico’s governments pledged specialist aid to help search teams.

The earthquake struck shortly after night fell on Saturday near Muisne, in a sparsely populated area of mostly small ports and tourist villages about 100 miles from the capital, Quito. Local officials reported deaths in the cities of Portoviejo, the Tarqui neighbourhood of Manta and Guayaquil, where at least one person died after a bridge collapsed on top of a car. Houses were upended or reduced to rubble, some with washing lines still strung up or photos hanging on the walls.

Residents of Portoviejo, about 300km south of Muisne, described being thrown into the air by the force of the earthquake. Mercedes Torres was buying dog food at a shopping mall when it struck.



“I was at the cash register when I felt something lift me off the floor, then everything began to move and you could hear things falling from the counters and people screaming. It was horrible,” she told the Guardian.



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With the roads blocked and power down, it took her three times as long as usual to return to her home in the 12 de Marzo neighbourhood. On the road, she was shocked by the scenes of devastation. At one crossroads, she said a local restaurant had been so badly crushed that it resembled an accordion. “I see a lot of destruction,” she said, speaking by phone. “There is no electricity and water, many roads are blocked and some people are staying on the streets.”

Maria Jaramillo, 36, a resident of Guayaquil, described the sound of windows shattering as the quake struck. “At first it was light, but it lasted a long time and got stronger,” she told Reuters. “I was on the seventh floor and the lights went off in the whole sector, and we evacuated. People were very anxious in the street ... We left barefoot.”

Dozens of aftershocks – as many as 130, according to one count – had followed the initial quake, one as strong as 5.5 on the Richter scale.

The vice-president, Jorge Glas, flew to Manta on Sunday morning, taking charge in the place of President Rafael Correa. The president, who was attending a summit in Italy and the Vatican, flew directly from Europe to Manta on Sunday evening.

“There are people trapped in various places and we are starting rescue operations,” Glas said, declaring a state of emergency in six provinces.

“Everything can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be recovered, and that’s what hurts the most,” Correa told reporters, calling for the country’s 16 million inhabitants to remain calm and pull together.

In tweets from his plane, Correa said the immediate priority was finding survivors who may be buried under the rubble, and urged citizens to be wary of falling debris. “The whole country is mobilised. Thanks to the whole world for solidarity,” he tweeted.

Landslides have closed at least 12 roads around the region most devastated by the quake, but the national airline, TAME, arranged several humanitarian airlifts with members of the Red Cross and thousands of police reinforcements.

But in Perdernales, one of the towns close to the epientre, the mayor, Gabriel Alcívar, spoke of despair as residents worked through the night to try to free their neighbours buried under the rubble.

“We’re trying to do the most we can, but there’s almost nothing we can do,” he told a radio interview early Sunday morning, pleading with authorities to send more machinery to help rescue efforts.

“There are villages totally devastated. What happened here in Pedernales is catastrophic. This wasn’t just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town.

Alberto Reynas, 58, was fishing off the coast of Pedernales, a tourist beauty spot, when giant waves almost threw him from the boat. “It felt the same on sea as it did on land,” he told the Associated Press.

Returning home, he found his home in ruins, the facade fallen onto the streets. Fearing aftershocks and looters, he slept in the street in front of his house. “It’s pure sadness. Everything is destroyed,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People search for their belongings amid the debris of their destroyed homes in Pedernales, on Ecuador’s Pacific coast. Photograph: Dolores Ochoa/AP

Televicentro, a local TV station, showed images of local people shifting rubble with their bare hands, another group using a small tractor in desperate attempts to clear the debris.

In the centre of town in the early hours of Sunday morning, Luis Quito said he and other volunteers had heard screams from guests of a small hotel, trapped after the building collapsed. They passed down cups of water to survivors but could not move the debris.

“We hear screaming all through night,” said Quito. “There are humans trapped below the terrace – babies. We need rescuers. But nobody has arrived so far.”

Residents of coastal towns were initially told to evacuate for fear of tsunami waves but were later told to return home. Earlier, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre had said tsunami waves were possible along the coasts of Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Peru, but after several hours the centre said that the tsunami threat from this earthquake had now mostly passed.

Jorge Largo, who works in the Piñas fire department office, was in Porto Viejo when he felt the quake. He was not concerned at first, he sid, because low-intensity tremors are common in northern Ecuador. Suddenly, computers, printers, filing cabinets and lamps were shaking. Fire extinguishers and window glass fell to the floor.

“It was impossible to stay standing because of the movement and I fell down the stairs during the evacuation and bruised my right arm,” he said.

Having checked his family were all right, Largo said he joined the emergency operation.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A woman cries as she views the crumbled remains of her home in the town of Pedernales. Photograph: Jose Jacome/EPA

“There are people still trapped under the rubble and right now we are not able to give any numbers,” he said. “It’s sad what happened. There are buildings that have completely collapsed.”

He said rescue teams were arriving from Guayaquil, Quito, Manta and Cuenca and the Red Cross, fire department and armed forces were all involved. “We hope the number of casualties won’t soar,” he said.

Concerns are focusing on Muisne and Pedernales, the cities closest to the epicentre. On Saturday night, Alcívar, the Pedernales mayor, wept as he begged for assistance on national television. “We truly need help,” he said.

About 80% of the infrastructure of the town, which has a population of 55,000, has been affected by the earthquake, according to El Universo newspaper. It said three hotels –Pedernales, César Augusto and Arena – had completely collapsed.

Television images of the main square showed collapsed facades, fallen concrete and exposed steel beams covered in dust. Emergency teams were searching for bodies and survivors among the debris.

One resident said his niece and nephew were trapped inside one of the buildings. “We have found three dead relatives and we are holding a memorial for them today, but we’re still missing two, so we are asking for help from our neighbours,” he told reporters. “Everything is a mess here in Pedernales – all the buildings, all the hotels have fallen down. And there’s no help for us.” He said the army had arrived but was yet to provide assistance.



Muisne, a city in Esmeraldas province, is also affected. “We are on our own. There’s no authority here helping. We, the people from Muisne, are helping the people from Muisne,” a survivor told Ecuavisa’s satellite news channel. “We have 80 houses that collapsed and 50 more are about to fall. People have had to leave Muisne, to evacuate.”



Others reported looting. “We have seen people stealing quilts, comforters. My wife and I are still checking our things but we think that we’ve also had some things stolen. People have no conscience,” another survivor told Ecuavisa.



In a joint statement, the EU foreign affairs representative, Federica Mogherini, and the European commissioner for humanitarian aid, Christos Stylianides, pledged European assistance and said that they were analysing what support and expertise was needed. “We stand by the first responders who are doing a heroic job to save lives under very difficult conditions,” they said.

Sports events and concerts have been cancelled until further notice nationwide, and phone operators suspended charges for text messages to allow people to communicate. More than $600m (£422m) in emergency credit from multilateral lenders has also been activated, the government said.

Ecuador’s quake was about six times stronger than one that hit Japan, which is also part of the volatile rim known by seismologists as the “ring of fire”. David Rothery, a professor of geosciences at the Open University, said about 20 magnitude-7 earthquakes occurred every year across the globe. “There is no causal relationship between the earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan,” he added.

The US Geological Survey also said there was probably no correlation between the two. “Even the earth’s rocky crust is not rigid enough to transfer stress efficiently over thousands of miles,” it said on its website.

A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck Japan on Thursday near Kumamoto, followed by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake just 28 hours later. Both earthquakes killed a total of 41 people and triggered significant landslides.