Probe called into Ecuador port blast leaving 5 dead

QUITO－At least five people were killed and 17 others injured in an explosion that rocked Ecuador's southwestern port city of Guayaquil early on Sunday morning.

In a preliminary report, Ecuador's National Risk and Emergency Management Service said the explosion had left five dead and 17 injured, and destroyed eight houses and two vehicles.

A probe into the explosion has been launched and organized crime linked to drug trafficking was suspected to be behind the incident.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency for 30 days in Guayaquil following the explosion.

"The entire public force will be available for restoring control of the city. We will not allow organized crime to try to run the country," Lasso wrote in a tweet.

Ecuador's Prosecutor's Office wrote on its Twitter account that its agents were gathering evidence to establish the cause and motive for the attack in Guayaquil's Cristo del Consuelo neighborhood.

The motive for the attack has not yet been specified by police. According to preliminary reports, two people on a motorcycle threw a sack that was believed to contain explosives.

At a news conference, Ecuadorian Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo called the explosion an "act of terrorism" and said the explosives seemed to be homemade, ruling out that grenades were used in the attack.

Carrillo said three people were killed on the spot, while the other two died in hospital.

He tweeted that Sunday's violence "is a declaration of war against the State". "Either we unite to face it or the price will be even higher for society," he wrote. The government offered a $10,000 reward for information about this incident.

Guayaquil, 270 kilometers southwest of the capital Quito, has seen frequent shootings by members of rival gangs believed to have links to drug trafficking.

Xinhua - Agencies