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In Pictures

Gallery|Earthquakes

Powerful quakes devastate life in Ecuador and Japan

Rescue work still underway to pull out people from collapsed buildings, while tens of thousands rendered homeless.

Japan earthquake
Japan Ground Self-Defence Force soldiers conduct search and rescue operations for a missing guest at a destroyed mountain villa following a landslide site caused by an earthquake in Minamiaso town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan. [Kyodo/Reuters]
Published On 18 Apr 201618 Apr 2016
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Rescue operations are still underway in Japan and Ecuador following powerful earthquakes that caused massive damage to property and loss of life in the two countries.

Two quakes struck Japan within a span of 24 hours, with a series of aftershocks rocking southern Japan’s Kyushu island. At least 42 people are known to have died and more than 110,000 people remained displaced.

Ecuador was hit by a magnitude 7.8 quake, which was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and destroying buildings, bridges and roads.

Rescuers intensified the hunt for nine people still missing in a devastated village in southern Japan on Monday, with time running out after the earthquakes left buildings in rubble and houses buried in mud.

Up to 25,000 personnel have fanned out through villages where scores of traditional-style houses have been left in ruins by Saturday’s magnitude 7.0 quake, which struck a part of Japan not used to such tremors.

Many of the evacuees have been forced to sleep in temporary accommodation or huddled in makeshift shelters.

The death toll from Ecuador’s biggest earthquake in decades soared as survivors cobbled together makeshift coffins to bury loved ones, lined up for water and sought shelter beside the rubble of their shattered homes.

“This is the greatest tragedy in the last 67 years,” said a shaken President Rafael Correa, who rushed back to Ecuador from a visit to Italy.

There were more than 200 aftershocks, mainly in the Pedernales area. A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.

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The quake has piled pain on the economy of OPEC’s smallest member, already reeling from low oil prices, with economic growth this year projected at near-zero.

Japan earthquake
Evacuees from a nursing home wrap themselves in blankets as they take shelter outside their damaged nursing home caused by the earthquake. [Kyodo/Reuters]
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Japan earthquake
Local residents sleep at Kumamoto city hall after evacuating their houses. [Taro Karibe/Getty Images]
Ecuador earthquake
A firefighter walks past a collapsed building after an earthquake struck off the Pacific coast, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. [Henry Romero/Reuters]
Ecuador earthquake
Parts of Ecuador have been devastated by the country's strongest earthquake in decades. [Guillermo Granja/Reuters]
Ecuador earthquake
A man walks by a collapsed building in Portoviejo, Ecuador. [Carlos Sacoto/AP]
Ecuador earthquake
Police officers carry the body of a victim pulled out from debris. [Guillermo Granja/Reuters]
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Ecuador earthquake
People crying in the wake of the quake in Ecuador. [Guillermo Granja/Reuters]
Ecuador earthquake
Injured people are attended to at the Rafael Rodriguez Zambrano Hospital. [Guillermo Granja/Reuters]
Ecuador earthquake
Police carry a body on stretcher as rescue operations continued to pull out more bodies trapped inside damaged buildings. [Guillermo Granja/Reuters]
Ecuador earthquake
Residents sleep under a makeshift tent outside the emergency centre in the town of Portoviejo, Ecuador. [Rodrigo Abd/AP]


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