A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador on Saturday, with effects felt in much of the country as well as in the northernmost parts of neighboring Peru.
At least 15 people are thought to have died in the quake, with hundreds injured. Infrastructure has also been hit with Santa Rosa Airport one of the buildings to suffer damage.
Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat has deployed its entire technical team nationwide to assess the damages and needs in all provinces. Emergency services are carrying out rescue missions.
The Secretariat said evaluations showed that the earthquake did not meet the necessary conditions to generate a tsunami on the continental and insular coast.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said he had been in touch with the government of Ecuador to “express sympathy for the losses suffered and ensure that the leadership and people of Ecuador know that we stand with them as they recover.”
