|
QUITO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Three people died of heart attacks on Monday following a 5.7-magnitude earthquake in northern Ecuador, which caused at least another 15 injuries and substantial material damage, authorities said.
"They have confirmed the death of three people from heart attacks, not from any direct effect of the quake," the communications ministry said via Twitter, updating earlier reports of two fatalities.
The quake shook the country's northern coastal province of Esmeraldas at 2:11 a.m. (0711 GMT) at a depth of 5.2 km off the coast of Atacames, a seaside town, the Secretariat for Risk Management (SGR) said.
It was followed by 36 aftershocks whose magnitudes ranged from 2.4 to 4.6, Ecuador's Geophysical Institute said.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa immediately traveled to the region, which was still recovering from the powerful mid-April earthquake.
Correa reported that 700 family homes were partially or totally destroyed.
"Tents and equipment are on the way," Correa said on Twitter.
The president also posted a photograph of a building in Atacames -- the Casas del Mar Hotel, whose second floor had collapsed onto the ground floor.
"It is a miracle that there wasn't more loss of life," said Correa, noting there was "material damage due to poor construction."
The main quake was felt as far south as Guayas Province, as well as in the neighboring provinces of Manabi and Pichincha, home to the nation's capital Quito.
The seismic activity knocked out electricity service in 15 percent of northern Esmeraldas and the military was dispatched to patrol those areas, the SGR said.
Classes were also suspended across the province, which along with Manabi was devastated by a 7.8-magnitude quake on April 16 that claimed 673 lives.
The country's Geophysical Institute, which predicted aftershocks could continue over the coming days, traced the quake and others earlier this month to a tectonic fault located off the coast of Atacames.
"This fault in the continental plate was probably sparked by ... the April 16 earthquake, which had its epicenter in the neighboring zone of Cojimies," the institute said.
