ECUADOR QUAKE

Death toll reaches 480

Some 1,700 people are still missing three days after a big earthquake struck Ecuador, an official said Tuesday, raising fears that a death toll currently put at 480 could dramatically rise, repoprts AFP. "We have 2,000 people listed that are being looked for, but we have so far found 300," Deputy Interior Minister Diego Fuentes told reporters in the capital Quito yesterday. "Right now we have 480 people who were killed and approximately 2,560 people who were injured," he said. It was the first figure for people missing that officials have given since the 7.8-magnitude quake hit Ecuador's Pacific coast on Saturday, bringing homes and hotels in the popular tourist area crashing to earth.

 

ECUADOR QUAKE

Death toll reaches 480

Some 1,700 people are still missing three days after a big earthquake struck Ecuador, an official said Tuesday, raising fears that a death toll currently put at 480 could dramatically rise, repoprts AFP. We have 2,000 people listed that are being looked for, but we have so far found 300, Deputy Interior Minister Diego Fuentes told reporters in the capital Quito yesterday. Right now we have 480 people who were killed and approximately 2,560 people who were injured, he said. It was the first figure for people missing that officials have given since the 7.8-magnitude quake hit Ecuadors Pacific coast on Saturday, bringing homes and hotels in the popular tourist area crashing to earth.