The 6.8-magnitude earthquake was centered just off the Pacific coast, about 80 kilometers south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city, according to the US USGS.
Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso said in a televised address to the nation that the earthquake killed 12 people.
Find and help victims
One of the dead was in a vehicle that was crushed by pieces from a house in the community of Cuenca, according to the country’s emergency services.
In the coastal state of El Oro, three people died and several were trapped under rubble. Also in the community of Machala, an unknown number of people have been trapped under rubble after a two-storey building collapsed.
Emergency services are working to find and help victims while the national police assess the damage. The work is made more difficult by downed lines that cut off telephone and electricity services.
Also known in Peru
According to a report from Ecuador’s Adverse Events Monitoring Directorate, there does not appear to be a tsunami threat.
The earthquake was also felt in Peru, from the country’s northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far.
Ecuador is particularly prone to earthquakes. In 2016, an earthquake further north on the Pacific coast killed more than 600 people.