Earthquake hits Ecuador

2 people have been killed and eight others injured in Ecuador after a shallow earthquake struck the capital, Quito, and the surrounding areas, the emergency services say.
The 5.1 magnitude quake caused buildings to sway and sent people scurrying into the streets.
Quito’s main airport suspended operations temporarily as a precaution.
Parts of the city were covered in clouds of dust that formed from shifting earth at nearby quarries.
The moderate quake also triggered small landslides which blocked roads.
A landslide engulfed a vehicle on a road north of the city, but the driver escaped unharmed, rescue workers said. Continue...

“I was talking on the phone with my daughter and suddenly the line went dead. I thought the house was falling down,” Laura Flores, a resident of Quito’s northern Carcelen district, told the AFP news agency.
She said the quake had opened a crack in one wall of her house and caused plates to fall and break.
Teresa Salazar, who works in northern Quito, said they were “all very nervous”.
“We could really feel it. The first thing I did was leave (the building) with my colleagues,” she told the Reuters news agency.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred 23 km (14 miles) northeast of Quito at a depth of 7.7 km (4.8 miles).
Ecuador is prone to earthquakes. It is located along the so-called Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped, seismically turbulent area of the Pacific Ocean.