Ecuador: Avalanche kills seven people, 46 missing

At least seven people were killed and 46 more missing in a landslide triggered by heavy rains in southern Ecuador, according to a new balance sheet revised by the government on Monday.

The most recent report, released at 13:00 local time (16:00 GMT), indicated that 23 people were injured in an avalanche that descended on Sunday evening in alausiin the province of Chimborazoabout 300 km south of Quito.

Earlier, authorities registered 16 dead and seven missing by mistake.

Since dawn, firefighters from nearby towns and residents of the area have searched among the mud and rocks for the victims of the landslide, which also devastated part of the highway.

At the site of the collapse, sheets of twisted metal and logs split in half were sticking out of the ground, AFP correspondents found.

“We need to continue the rescue processes. We ask all citizens to evacuate the affected areas in order to best deal with this emergency,” President Guillermo Lasso tweeted. Twitter.

The government ordered the evacuation of 600 houses still standing in the disaster area, which surprised the residents of Alausi around 21:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

“It was about nine in the evening, and I managed to escape about fifteen minutes before the exit. We were taking things out” to evacuate the area, which was declared yellow in February due to landslides,” José Agualzaca told Teleamazonas.

In the area where the collapse occurred, authorities reported a road collapse at the site where part of the mountain collapsed.

The avalanche captured the Colosseum, the stadium and forced the suspension of in-person classes

According to National Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR) there are about 500 victims of the collapse.

At dawn this Monday, a huge patch of mud stretched out in the middle of the green hills surrounding alausiwhere about 45,000 people live.

Confused faces appeared on the streets of the city, ready to cry, waiting for news.

The avalanche also claimed the Colosseum, the stadium, and forced the suspension of in-person classes at three schools. About 400 students live at risk, the government warned in a balance sheet published in Twitter.

Alausi is known all over the world thanks to the so-called devil’s nosethe steep and dangerous slope along which the Trans-Andean railway line passes Ecuadorgiving it the title “the most complex train in the world”.

Since January, heavy rains in Ecuador have already killed 22 people and left 346 homeless; More than 6,900 homes were affected and 72 destroyed, according to SNGR.

The most affected provinces are the coastal ones. manabi, Guayas, Saint Helena, Gold of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas And Riversand Andean Cotopaxi, Bolivar And Chimborazo.

According to SNGR, 987 rain-related hazards such as floods and landslides have been reported this year.

Rain and an earthquake that killed 15 people forced the government last week to declare a 60-day state of emergency in 13 of 24 provinces to mobilize economic resources to help those affected.