Ecuador earthquake death toll rises to 272

At least 272 people are now known to have died in the huge earthquake that hit Ecuador on Saturday.

The quake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, was the biggest to hit the country in more than four decades and could be felt as far away as Colombia.

President Rafael Correa yesterday declared a state of emergency after cutting short a visit to Italy to deal with the disaster.

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Around 10,000 troops and 3,500 police have been deployed to help the rescue operations and the death toll is expected to rise as they dig through the rubble.

With the epicentre just off the country's Pacific coast, the government had urged people to leave coastal areas because of concerns about a tidal wave in the immediate aftermath. Alarmed residents also streamed onto the streets of the capital, Quito, hundreds of miles away, and there were reports of similar panic in towns across Ecuador.

Parts of the capital were left without power or telephone services, but state officials said the country's oil output, the main driver of the economy, has been unaffected.

Ecuador's Geophysics Institute has reported at least 36 aftershocks, one as strong as magnitude six, and warned these were likely to continue for some days.

One survivor, whose house in Guayaquil was violently shaken by the tremors, told CNN: "It was the worst experience of my life. Everybody in my neighbourhood was screaming, saying it was going to be the end of the world."

Venezuela and Mexico have pledged specialist aid, while Ecuador's government has released $600m (£423m) in emergency funding to rebuild devastated cities.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was roughly six times as powerful as the ones that struck Japan last week.

The magnitude of 7.8 matches that of the 1906 earthquake that reduced the city of San Francisco to rubble.