Powerful earthquake on the Ecuador-Peru border shakes both countries

A strong earthquake with epicenter in the northern part of Peru, near the border with Ecuador, has shaken wide areas of the two neighboring countries early Wednesday morning, with no serious personal or material damage reported by local authorities at first.

Seismographs recorded the tremors around 3:30 (local time). Ecuadorian and Peruvian authorities put the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.3 and 6.1 on the Richter scale, although the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has lowered it to 5.8.

The Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP) places the epicenter about 13 kilometers from the town of Sullana, where two people have been injured at the time of evacuating their respective homes, according to the manager of Citizen Security, Vincenzo Ieva, quoted by RPP radio station.

For its part, the Ecuadorian Secretariat of Risk and Emergency Management has reported tremors in at least 49 cantons, mostly mild, although they would have reached moderate levels in Loja, Azuay and Zamora Chinchipe, reports the newspaper ‘El Comercio’.