Rescuers pull out survivors of deadly Ecuador quake
PEDERNALES, Ecuador - Rescuers and desperate families clawed through rubble Monday, pulling out the first survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 413 people and destroyed towns in a tourist region of Ecuador.
Tearful relatives grabbed chunks of debris with their bare hands as they joined in the search for their loved ones along with stretched firefighting teams and mechanical diggers.
Among the stories of survival, local media said a girl was rescued from the ruins of a building after being trapped for 20 hours in the hard-hit town of Pedernales, at the center of the quake.
Firefighters said on Twitter they pulled out three other survivors from rubble in the town of Manta.
But the government raised the death toll to 413, two days after the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the South American nation.
"We are counting 413 people dead at present," the country's Security Ministry said Monday, updating the count from 350 earlier in the day.
At that time authorities said more than 2,000 people were injured.
- AFP
