AP Online
A fresh tremor rattled Ecuador before dawn Wednesday morning, a 6.1 magnitude jolt that was the strongest aftershock since a lethal earthquake killed hundreds of people. There was no immediate report of further damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the tremor was centered offshore, 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of the devastated beach town of Muisne, at 3:33 a.m. local time. The previous strongest aftershock following Saturday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake was magnitude 5.7.
The aftershock came after Ecuadoreans began burying loved ones, with hopes fading that more survivors will be found. In the small town of Montecristi, near the port city of Manta, two children were among those buried Tuesday. They were killed with their mother while buying school supplies when the magnitude-7.8 quake struck Saturday night.
The funeral had to be held outside under a makeshift awning, because the town’s Roman Catholic church was unsafe from structural damage. Family members wailed loudly and one man fainted as the children were laid to rest in an above-ground vault.
Scenes of mourning multiplied all along Ecuador’s normally placid Pacific coastline, where the tremor flattened towns and killed hundreds. Funeral homes are running out of caskets to accommodate so many casualties, and local governments are paying to bring in caskets from other cities. The National Prosecutors Office put the death toll at 525 on Wednesday — up from a previous official toll of 507 — but officials expected more bodies to be found, with the Defense Department reporting Tuesday that more than 200 people were still missing.
The office said on its official Twitter account Wednesday that there were at least 11 foreigners among the dead.