Pickup truck explodes on busy street in Ecuador

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QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A pickup truck exploded on a busy shopping street in the port city of Guayaquil in Ecuador on Tuesday evening killing one person and injuring two others in what the governor called an intentional attack.

Maj. Jorge Montanero of the Guayaquil fire department told local television station Ecuavisa that the person killed was a cab driver who was nearby. He added that police were inspecting all vehicles in the surrounding area as well.

“We’re evacuating all of the buildings as a precaution,” Montanero said. Asked if it could have been a car bomb, he said they would have to wait for police to investigate. “We don’t know, but a normal car doesn’t blow up like that,” he said.

Guayaquil’s police chief Francisco Zumárraga said police had found a “new threat” and that there would be a controlled detonation. He said they would find those responsible.

The Attorney General’s Office said that it had opened an investigation and was interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance camera recordings.

There were a series of car bombing in Ecuador in 2023, as violence surged in the weeks after a presidential candidate was assassinated.

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 in Quito caused minor damage, but no deaths.

But Gov. Humberto Plaza of Guayas province, whose capital is Guayaquil, said Tuesday’s explosion was “terrorism plain and simple” and promised that police would find those responsible.

“We’re going to grab them and they’re going to pay and these people are going to be prosecuted for terrorism,” he said.

The area is packed with restaurants and stores, some of whose windows were broken by the explosion.