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Strongest Earthquake Since 1979 Hits Ecuador, Killing Over 200
Hundreds were killed in what Ecuadorian Vice President described as the strongest quake to hit the country since 1979.
People stand next to the debris of a building after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off the country's northwest Pacific coast, in Manta, Ecuador on April 16, 2016.
When the Tumaco earthquake struck Ecuador in 1979, 600 people were killed and 20,000 injured, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A man walks on top of a collapsed building in Manta, Ecuador on April, 16, 2016.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa says the death toll from the magnitude-7.8 earthquake has risen to 233. Correa sent the new figure on his official Twitter account while flying home from Rome to deal with the emergency.
People take pictures of a collapsed bridge in Guayaquil, Ecuador on April 16.
David Rothery, a professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University, northeast of London, says that the quake in Ecuador began deeper underground than the recent Japan quakes, which would have lessened the shaking on the ground. But the greater loss of life and greater damage in Ecuador can be attributed to the country's less stringent construction codes.
Rescue workers try to pull out survivors trapped in a collapsed building after the earthquake, in Manta early on April 17, 2016.Some 10,000 armed forces and hundreds of emergency workers and firefighters have been sent to the region after the quake flattened buildings and buckled highways.
Emergency teams conduct a preventive evacuation at a clinic due to the presence of cracks in the building following the strong earthquake in Ecuador, in Cali, Colombia, late on April 16, 2016.
In Colombia the quake was felt in cities like Cali, Pasto and Popayan, without any report of casualties, according to its National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).
