Rescuers pull out survivors of deadly Ecuador quake as toll rises to 350

One of Ecuador's worst-hit towns, Pedernales, after a 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country on April 16, 2016. Rescuers in Ecuador raced to dig out victims trapped under the rubble of homes and hotels after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed at least 350. Rodrigo Buendia/AFPShow less

Portoviejo, Ecuador // Rescuers and desperate families clawed through the rubble on Monday to pull out survivors of an earthquake that killed 350 people and destroyed towns in a tourist area of Ecuador.

Tearful relatives looking for loved ones grabbed chunks of debris with their bare hands as they joined in the search alongside stretched firefighting teams.

Foreign countries meanwhile dispatched rescue teams to aid the search and medical units treating the thousands of injured people.

In towns such as Manta and Portoviejo on the Pacific coast, the stench of rotting bodies filled the tropical air among heaps of rubble and twisted metal.

“My husband is under there,” said Veronica Paladines, 24, tearing at a mound of debris that used to be a hotel in Manta, with tears flooding down her cheeks.

Her 25-year-old spouse, Javier Sangucho, the father of their two young children, worked at the property as a painter.

“He had just gone down to rest a bit when it happened,” she said.

The government on Monday raised the death toll from the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the oil-producing South American nation on Saturday.

“Sadly we have to inform you that there are about 350 people killed. The number of peopled injured has also risen” from an earlier toll of 2,068, said security minister Cesar Navas, without giving a precise figure.

Ecuador’s foreign minister Guillaume Long said via Twitter that experienced rescuers were arriving from Switzerland, Spain, and other Latin American countries including Mexico and Peru. Cuba said it was sending a medical brigade to treat victims.

The Spanish Red Cross estimated that up to 100,000 people would need assistance.

Mr Navas said authorities were sending food and water to the devastated areas.

In Portoviejo, a city 15 kilometres from the coast, the quake knocked down walls in a prison, allowing 100 inmates to escape.

Some were recaptured or returned later, but police were hunting for the others, justice minister Ledy Zuniga tweeted.

President Rafael Correa visited the disaster zone on Sunday after cutting short an official trip to the Vatican, and warned that the toll would “certainly rise and probably in a considerable way”.

“There are still lots of bodies in the rubble,” he said. “These are extremely difficult times, the biggest tragedy in the last 67 years.”

An earthquake in August 1949 near the central Ecuadoran city of Ambato killed some 5,000 people.

* Agence France-Presse