PEDERNALES, Ecuador—Rescuers pulled survivors from rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast. Officials said the quake had killed at least 238 people and injured more than 1,500.
The magnitude-7.8 quake, the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, was centered on Ecuador’s sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 105 miles (170 kilometers) northwest of Quito, the capital.
Vice President Jorge Glas reported the death toll at a somber news conference, while President Rafael Correa flew back from Rome to deal with the crisis. He said 1,557 people were injured.
Glas said there were deaths in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil—all several hundred kilometers (miles) from the center of the quake, which struck shortly after nightfall Saturday.
In Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the quake’s epicenter, dozens of frightened residents slept in the streets while men equipped with little more than car headlights tried to rescue survivors who could be heard trapped under the rubble.
