Powerful earthquake shakes Peru, Ecuador

updated 8:51 a.m. ET Nov. 16, 2007

QUITO, Ecuador - A powerful earthquake shook the border region of Ecuador and Peru late Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.7 quake struck at 10:12 p.m. and was centered in a sparsely populated jungle region, about 150 miles southeast of Quito, the capital. Local media said the temblor was felt strongly in the country’s largest city, the port of Guayaquil.

The Ecuadorean Geophysics Institute said it “had reports that the quake was felt throughout the country.”

Though the institute said it did not know of any damage, Miguel Seminario, fire chief in Morona Santiago province where the quake was centered, told Channel 1 television that some houses have cracked walls but “nothing serious.”

“People went out into the streets, and we don’t know of any injuries,” said Seminario.

Vanessa Ochoa, 24, a business student, told The Associated Press from the jungle city of Puyo, about 100 miles north of the epicenter, that the quake “was felt very strongly. It lasted 50 seconds.”

Peruvian Civil Defense officials told Lima radio station Radioprogramas that the quake was felt strongly in cities in northern Peru but there were no reports of damage.

The quake came after a magnitude-7.7 temblor shook northern Chile on Wednesday, killing two people, injuring more than 150 and leaving 15,000 homeless.

Strong aftershocks continued to rattle Chile on Thursday, with one tremor measuring magnitude 6.2 and another magnitude 6.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Chile’s, Peru’s and Ecuador’s Pacific coastlines all lie along the intersection of the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, one of the world’s most seismically active regions.

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