Rescuers pulled three people out alive after they had been trapped for more than 32 hours in the rubble of a shopping centre that was flattened by the powerful earthquake on Ecuador's coast.

began to flow in Sunday to areas devastated by Ecuador's strongest earthquake in decades and the death toll continued to rise.

A powerful, 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador's central coast on Saturday, killing at least 28 people and spreading panic as far away as the capital of Quito.