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One person was killed and two others were injured when a pickup truck exploded on a busy shopping street in the port city GuayaquilEcuador, on Tuesday evening. The local governor immediately declared the incident a deliberate attack.
Major Jorge Montenero of the Guayaquil Fire Department confirmed to local broadcaster Equavisa that the deceased was a nearby cab driver. After the explosion, the police are now checking all the vehicles in the surrounding area.
“As a precaution, we are evacuating all buildings,” Montenero said. When asked whether it could be a car bomb, he said they would have to wait for the police investigation. “We don’t know, but a normal car doesn’t explode like that,” he said.
Guayaquil police chief Francisco Zumárraga said police had detected a “new threat” and that a controlled explosion would take place. They said they would find those responsible.
The Attorney General’s Office said it has opened an investigation and is interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance camera recordings.
A series of car bombings occurred in Ecuador in 2023, as violence escalated in the weeks following the assassination of a presidential candidate.
In March, a vehicle exploded outside Ecuador’s largest prison on the outskirts of Guayaquil, killing a prison guard. The bomb was attributed to a criminal network. Other vehicle explosions last year Quito Minor damage occurred, but no deaths.
But Humberto Plaza, the governor of Guayas state, whose capital is Guayaquil, said Tuesday’s blast was “terrorism plain and simple” and promised that police would find those responsible.
“We will catch them and make them pay and these people will be prosecuted for terrorism,” he said.
The area is full of restaurants and shops, some of whose windows were broken by the blast.