Earthquake in Ecuador, at least 15 dead

The death toll from the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Ecuador and neighboring Peru has risen to 15. The US Geological Survey said the quake hit the coastal Guayas region of Ecuador, with its epicenter about 80 kilometers south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second largest city. The quake had a depth of about 66 kilometers, the USGS said.

The Ecuadorian Risk Management Secretariat reported that nearly 400 people were injured. Most of the people lost their lives in the province of El Oro, while there were also victims in Azuay, in the Andean highlands, as reported by the Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso called for calm and traveled to the hardest-hit provinces of El Oro and Azuay, where he visited, among other things, a hospital. In Peru, Prime Minister Alberto Otárola said a little girl died after her house collapsed in the Tumbes region on the border with Ecuador.

The two countries are located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area marked by seismic upheaval with about 128 active volcanoes.