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| Rescuers dragged the body of what appears to be a very young boy from the rubble of a collapsed building following a devastating earthquake in Ecuador |
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| A young boy weeps uncontrollably after finding out his sister has been killed in the earthquake in Pedernales, Ecuador |
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| The death toll from Ecuador's biggest earthquake in decades soared to at least 246 today (pictured, the destruction in Pedernales) |
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| The quake shook the entire Andean country of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito |
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| The earthquake struck 16 miles off the coast of Musine - a fishing town popular with tourists (pictured, a woman weeps as rescuers search for her daughter's body among the rubble) |
Any hope of finding more survivors in the destruction wreaked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador is fading fast.
With their bare hands, exhausted rescuers dragged the body of what appears to be a very young boy from the rubble of a collapsed building.
He was just one of more than 246 people killed when Ecuador's biggest earthquake in decades struck 16 miles off the country's west coast and leveled entire villages.
The quake shook the entire Andean country of 16 million people, causing panic as far away as the highland capital Quito and injuring more than 1,500.
Vice President Jorge Glas said the death toll will likely rise further in what he called the 'worst seismic movement we have faced in decades'.
He added: 'There are people trapped in various places, and we are starting rescue operations.'
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, rushing home from a trip to Italy, wrote on Twitter today: 'The immediate priority is to rescue people in the rubble... Everything can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be recovered, and that's what hurts the most.'
Coastal areas nearest the quake were worst affected, especially Pedernales, a rustic tourist spot with beaches and palm trees, where massive apartment blocks and buildings were completely flattened.
There were reports of at least 163 aftershocks, mainly in the badly affected Pedernales area, and a state of emergency was declared in six provinces.
Local TV station Televicentro broadcast footage of Pedernales locals using a small tractor to remove rubble to search - and attempt to rescue - those buried underneath.
One woman fell to her knees and wept when a corpse was pulled from underneath a pile of bricks and mortar and locals said children remained trapped.
Meanwhile in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, rubble covered the streets and a bridge fell on top of a car.
It was horrible, it was as if it was going to collapse like cardboard,' said Galo Valle, 56, who was guarding a building in the city where windows fell out and parts of walls broke.'
He added: 'I prayed and fell to my feet to ask God to protect me.'
Around 13,500 security force personnel were mobilized to keep order around Ecuador, and $600million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated for the emergency, the government said.
Gabriel Alcivar, the mayor of Pedernales, said: 'There are villages that are totally devastated What happened here in Pedernales is catastrophic. We're trying to do the most we can but there's almost nothing we can do.'
The death toll was expected to rise today as rescuers reached the sparsely populated area of fishing ports and tourist beaches where the quake was centered.
The quake was felt across the border in Colombia, where it shook residents in Cali and Popayan, and Peru briefly issued a tsunami warning. He pleaded for rescuers as dozens of buildings in the town were flattened, people trapped and looting broke out amid the chaos.
'This wasn't just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town.'
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