More than 400 people have died and over 2,000 were injured after a major earthquake hit Ecuador’s central coast on Saturday, the BBC reports.
The magnitude-7.8 quake, the worst experienced by the country in decades, struck near the town of Muisne, roughly 250 miles from Quito, Ecuador’s capital.
BBC News reports that a state of emergency has been declared and approximately 10,000 troops and 3,500 police have been sent to affected areas.
The death toll has continued to go up.
“I fear that figure will go up because we keep on removing rubble,” President Rafael Correa said in a televised address, according to the BBC. “There are signs of life in the rubble, and that is being prioritized.”
The earthquake hit Saturday around 7 p.m, BBC reports. The tremors buckled large overpasses, trapping drivers. Several buildings were completely flattened and a shopping mall partially collapsed on customers.
Since Saturday, displaced people have been sleeping in the streets, relying on government and Red Cross workers for supplies such as bottled water, medication, blankets and food, Reuters reports. More than 600 people have been treated for injuries in a makeshift hospital in Pedernales’ football stadium, which is also being used as a morgue.
“It looks like a war zone,” Portoviejo resident Viviana Baquezea told The New York Times. “It’s incredible what was happened to us — that our city is destroyed and we’re experiencing such anguish and pain…We don’t have food or water, there are no supermarkets, and we’re surviving with what we had in our homes.”