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4 days after, another earthquake rocks Ecuador

Published

8 years ago

April 20, 2016

4 days after, another earthquake rocks Ecuador

The South American country of Ecuador has been hit by another earthquake measuring 6.2 magnitude of the coast of the country killing nearly 500 people just days after a major quake.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the latest quake was centred 70 km (44 miles) off the Pacific coast town Esmeraldas at a depth of 10 km, not far from the epicentre of Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude quake.

People scrambled into the streets from their sleep when two strong tremors of about 30 seconds each were felt in Cojimies, down the coast in the disaster zone from the weekend earthquake.

There was no warning by Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute which said the 6.2 magnitude earthquake which struck at 3.33 local time (0833 GMT), was followed by a series of after-shocks.

President Rafael Correa while supervising rescue work in the disaster zone said the weekend quake inflicted $2 billion to $3 billion of damage to the oil-dependent economy and could knock 2 to 3 percentage points off growth.

In isolated villages and towns, survivors struggled without water, power or transport, although aid was trickling in. Up and down Ecuador’s Pacific coast, sports stadiums served as both morgues and aid-distribution centres.

Scores of foreign aid workers and experts have come to help. About 14,000 security force members are keeping order, but sporadic looting has been reported.

Rescuers were losing hope of finding more people alive, although relatives of the missing begged them to keep looking.

“There is still a small margin of time to find survivors,” Correa said. “But I don’t want to give excessive hope.”

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