GUAYAQUIL: One person was killed and several more were injured in an explosion on Tuesday at a busy shopping centre in this port city.
Local authorities confirmed the casualties as Ecuador continues to grapple with a surge of violence linked to the Latin American drug trade.
Police stated they are still investigating the cause of the explosion, which rattled local businesses, restaurants, and hotels in a middle-class area.
Samantha Vera told AFP she was just a few metres away from the blast around 6 pm local time.
“We ran away out of fear that something else might happen,“ the 40-year-old said.
Claudia Quimi, who owns a nearby salon, reported that the glass windows shook from the terrible and horrifying blast.
Ecuador has become an epicentre of the global cocaine trade as cartels and mafias shed blood to gain turf.
Violent and chaotic scenes like Tuesday’s explosion are rising in Guayaquil, where homicides, extortion, and robberies are increasing.
The city struggles with its prime coastal location, which is exploited for drug trafficking and other illegal enterprises.
Last month, an explosion occurred outside a prison in Guayaquil shortly after a riot at a different prison left 13 inmates and a guard dead elsewhere in Ecuador.
As of August, more than 5,200 homicides have been recorded in Ecuador this year alone.
Roughly a third of those homicides occurred in Guayaquil, a city of 2.8 million people that serves as the nation’s commercial hub. – AFP
