12 dead in Ecuador after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake

On Saturday, 12 people died in Ecuador after an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale.

At least 12 people were killed Saturday in a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in southern Ecuador that also struck Peru, according to an official report.

“At the moment we have 12 dead,” the Ecuadorian presidency said on Twitter, including 11 in Oro and one in Azuay. The earthquake also injured at least one person and caused material damage.

This earthquake, which had its epicenter in southern Ecuador, also damaged many buildings. The Ecuadorean authorities said the 6.5-magnitude quake was recorded at 12:12 pm local time (1712 GMT) in the Ecuadorian municipality of Palau, about 140 kilometers from the port of Guayaquil, and at a depth of 44 kilometers.

I felt several aftershocks

The US Seismological Institute (USGS) assessed the magnitude at 6.8 on the Richter scale, the Peruvian seismological authorities announced it at 7.0. According to the Ecuadorian Secretariat for Risk Management, one person died in Cuenca (south) and three others in the surrounding area when a building collapsed.

In Peru, the director of the National Seismological Center, Hernando Tavera, told RPP radio that no injuries had been recorded and that “there was no significant damage.”

Aftershocks were felt by the population and the Oceanographic and Antarctic Institute of the Ecuadorian Navy confirmed that the quake “does not meet the conditions necessary to generate a tsunami” in the Pacific Ocean.

Peru and Ecuador lie on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a major seismic zone that runs along the western coast of the American continent.