Tourist seaside gunman horror leaves a number of lifeless – together with a two-year-old
A two-year-old girl is among six people shot dead after several gunmen opened fire at a popular tourist beach.
The gunmen, armed with automatic weapons, opened fire at around 9am local time in Puerto Lopez, a beach resort in southwestern Ecuador.
Shocking CCTV footage shows two motorbikes being driven in the area as their pillion passengers wave their rifles.
Regional police commander Colonel William Acurio told local media the attack killed six and left three others injured and the attackers “fled” the scene after the shooting. He said girl aged “approximately two years old” was among the victims.
He said the gunmen opened fire on a sports field located opposite the beach, in a crowded area surrounded by fish stalls and local businesses. Three other people were wounded in the attack.
Police are still searching for the suspects, with initial investigations suggesting internal disputes between gangs are to blame for the tragedy.
The area, in Ecuador’s Manabí province, is a popular whale-watching destination.
Local reports suggest the attack is part of a wave of violence this weekend which saw a total of nine people killed in Puerto Lopez.
Authorities believe the shooting was linked to disputes between organized crime groups as the country battles escalating gang-related violence connected to drug trafficking routes.
Following the attack, police reinforced security and patrols in Puerto López, deploying units from the Special Operations Group, Special Mobile Anti-Narcotics Group and Public Order Maintenance Unit.
The Ecuadorian government declared Manabí province under a state of emergency in August, citing a sharp rise in violent crime.
In January 2024, President Daniel Noboa declared that Ecuador was facing an “internal armed conflict” against powerful criminal organizations involved in narcotics trafficking, marking a significant shift in the country’s security policy.
Violent crime has been on the rise in Ecuador for several years, including a horror incident in which a man was lynched and burnt alive in a popular eco-tourism area on the country’s border with Colombia.
The victim, believed to a British national, was killed in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in Ecuador’s Amazon region and is believed to have been killed after a mob stormed a police station where he was being held, accused of shooting another person dead.
And in another sickening eruption of gang violence earlier this year, an ex-beauty queen was shot dead in front of her baby daughter. Esther Gabriela Murillo Cruz, 25, was ambushed by two men on a motorbike who sprayed the vehicle with bullets.
The lawless Latin American country has seen its murder rate rise eightfold as brutal gangs battle to control the cocaine trade.
President Noboa has defended his hardline policy against organised crime, even declaring the country to be fighting an internal war with gangs. Yet the violence continues, with the country becoming South America’s murder capital.
Massacres and armed clashes have become the norm – Ecuador will end the year with a record murder rate of 52 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Geneva-based Organised Crime Observatory.
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