Ecuador's strongest earthquake since 1979 killed at least 272 people, caused widespread damage and prompted the government to deploy thousands of soldiers to the quake zone, dpa reported. The 7.8-magnitude tremor that struck Saturday evening some 170 kilometres north-west of the capital Quito also left more than 2,500 injured, President Rafael Correa said late Sunday, according to media reports. The government deployed 10,000 soldiers and 4,000 police officers to the affected areas, while workers from abroad were on their way to support rescue efforts. Dozens of aftershocks, several of them magnitude 5.0 or greater, rattled the country in the hours after the quake hit. There were widespread reports of power outages and road closures, with the destruction also wreaking havoc in Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil. The quake came as a result of movement at or near the plate boundary between the Nazca and Pacific plates, the US Geological Survey said. Ecuador - on the so-called Pacific "ring of fire" - has a history of large quakes. Since 1900, seven magnitude-7 or greater earthquakes have had an epicentre within 250 kilometres of the latest quake, the US agency said.
