A strong Earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru Saturday, killing at least a dozen people and trapping others under rubble. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8. Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso in a televised address to the nation said the earthquake killed 12 people. One victim was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to the Risk Management Secretariat, the South American country’s emergency response agency. In the coastal state of El Oro, three people died and several were trapped under rubble, the agency reported. In the community of Machala, a two-story home collapsed before people could evacuate, a pier gave way, and a building’s walls cracked, trapping an unknown number of people. The agency said firefighters worked to rescue people while the National Police assessed damage, their work made more difficult by downed lines that interrupted telephone and electricity service.

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