Ecuador earthquake toll surpasses 650

The death toll from last week's earthquake in Ecuador has now passed 650, with 58 people also missing along the country's ravaged Pacific coast.

Roberto Ganchoso is comforted by a neighbor as he sits on what's left of his neighborhood

Roberto Ganchoso is comforted by a neighbor as he sits on what's left of his neighborhood. Source: AAP

The death toll from Ecuador's devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake last week has risen to 654 people.

Last Saturday's quake, the worst in nearly seven decades, injured about 16,600 people and left 58 missing along the country's ravaged Pacific coast.

One hundred and thirteen people were rescued from damaged buildings.

"These have been sad days for the homeland," President Rafael Correa said during his weekly television broadcast earlier on Saturday.

"The country is in crisis."

Several strong tremors and more than 700 aftershocks have continued to shake the country since the major quake, sparking momentary panic but little additional damage.

Tremors are expected to continue for several weeks.

With close to 7000 buildings destroyed, more than 25,000 people were living in shelters.

Some 14,000 security personnel were keeping order in quake-hit areas, with only sporadic looting reported.

Survivors in the quake zone were receiving food, water and medicine from the government and scores of foreign aid workers, although Correa has acknowledged that bad roads delayed aid reaching some communities.

Correa's leftist government, facing mammoth rebuilding at a time of greatly reduced oil revenues for the OPEC country, has said it would temporarily increase some taxes, offer assets for sale and possibly issue bonds abroad to fund reconstruction.

Congress will begin debate on the tax proposal on Tuesday.

Correa has estimated damage at $US2 billion ($A2.58 billion) to $US3 billion ($A3.88 billion).

Lower oil revenue has already left the country of 16 million people facing near-zero growth and lower investment.

The country's private banking association said on Saturday its member banks would defer payments on credit cards, loans and mortgages for clients in the quake zone for three months, to help reconstruction efforts.


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Source: AAP


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