A powerful, 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador’s central coast on Saturday, killing at least 28 people and spreading panic as far away as the Andean capital of Quito as it collapsed homes and rattled buildings.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the shallow quake, the strongest in decades to hit Ecuador, was centered 27 kilometers (16 miles) south-southeast of Muisne, in a sparsely populated area of fishing ports that’s popular with tourists.
Vice President Jorge Glas said in a televised address that there were initial reports of 28 dead in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil. Among those killed was the driver of a car crushed by an overpass that buckled in Guayaquil, the city’s most populous city hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter.
