Quito_ The Minister for Security Coordination, Cesar Navas, said today that there are nearly 350 deaths due to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit last Saturday the coastal area of Ecuador, Prensa Latina reports.
Navas said that the search and rescue of survivors continue uninterrupted.
More than 500 experts from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Cuba, Bolivia and Mexico joined to the search and rescue in the last hours.
The Minister of Transport and Public Works, Walter Solis, reported that more than 10 percent of the state road network was destroyed by the earthquake, considered the most powerful in Ecuador in the last 37 years.
Last night, in his first address to the nation after returning from the Vatican, the President Rafael Correa warned that the next few hours are crucial in the rescue of people.
The President is in the affected areas in the province of Manabi, and afterwards plans to go to the capital for a cabinet meeting.
Besides rescue workers, different countries have sent humanitarian aid to Ecuador, including Cuba, which sent a group of doctors in addition to the nearly 700 health professionals serving in the South American country.
In Quito and other cities, Ecuadorians are gathering food, blankets, tents, water and other items to send to their coastal compatriots.
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