6.0 quake causes light damage, power outages in Ecuador

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake shook coastal Ecuador Sunday, opening cracks in walls and cutting electricity in the province of Manabi, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The quake occurred at 6:19 am local time (1139 GMT) some 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the coastal town of San Vicente, Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute reported on Twitter.

“For the moment we have no victims to lament, nor significant material damage,” President Lenin Moreno said on his Twitter account.

So far only minor cracks have been detected in some houses and power was knocked out in the towns of Chone and Bahia de Caraques, risk management secretary Alexandra Ocles told radio Ciudadana.

The Ecuadoran navy’s Oceanographic Institute said there was no danger of a tsunami.

Manabi was hit by a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2016 that killed 673 people and caused more than $3 billion worth of damage.

Ecuador straddles the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, making it highly susceptible to seismic activity.

Two weeks ago, a 5.8 magnitude quake shook the province of Guayas in southwestern Ecuador, causing structural damage.