A 4.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Quito, the capital of Ecuador late Tuesday morning, apparently without causing major damage, authorities said.
The earthquake was recorded at a depth of 4.3 kilometers underground, the National Geophysical Institute said on its Twitter account.
"Our monitoring units carry out the damage assessment," Cristian Torres, director of the National Risk Management Service, said on the same social network.
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In the financial district in the north of the capital, office workers hastily evacuated buildings to gather in the street and in a nearby park, AFP journalists noted, without observing significant damage.
They remained gathered there in peace, calling their relatives on the cell phone.
According to the Municipality of Quito, "the underground car parks in the historic center were not affected by the strong earthquake felt this morning in the capital".
According to the report of the Institute of Geophysics, the earthquake was felt throughout the metropolitan district of Quito, including in rural areas on the outskirts of the city.
