QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador’s Vice President Jorge Glas says at least 28 people have been killed in a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the country’s central coast.
Glas said Saturday in a televised address that the dead were located in the cities of Manta, Guayaquil and Portoviejo.
He said the earthquake was the strongest to hit Ecuador in decades.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the shallow quake was centered 16 miles south-southeast of Muisne, Ecuador, in a sparsely populated area of fishing ports popular with tourists.
Photos of shopping centers in Quito with their roofs collapsing were seen on social media but authorities said they were still surveying the damage.
Extensive damage in Guayaquil, south of the epicenter. (via @jcsaonab/@torres_azael) #Ecuador pic.twitter.com/VwSBFSd6sS
— News2Share (@news_2_share) April 17, 2016
Several aftershocks, some as strong as 5.6 on the Richter scale, continued in the hour after the first quake, which occurred at nightfall.
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