Ecuador counts over 400 quake deaths, damage in the billions

Rescue team members and firefighters walk past a partially collapsed building after an earthquake struck off the Pacific coast, in Portoviejo, Ecuador, April 18, 2016.[Photo/Agencies]

The government has mobilized about 13,500 security personnel to the affected areas.

Nearly 400 rescue workers flew in from various Latin American neighbors, along with 83 specialists from Switzerland and Spain. Cuba was sending a team of doctors.

Two Canadians were among the dead. Jennifer Mawn, 38, and her 12-year-old son, Arthur, died when the roof of their coastal residence collapsed.

One US citizen is also confirmed to have died in the quake, the State Department said on Monday. And Britain's Guardian newspaper said Sister Clare Theresa Crockett, 33, a missionary nun from Derry in Northern Ireland, also died.

To get finance the costs of the emergency, some $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated, the government said.

But the disaster may also push Correa, a leftist, to seek help from the International Monetary Fund, consultancy Eurasia said.

"Such dynamics increase the odds of Correa turning to an IMF Program for support, an option he has so far resisted, and the earthquake could provide him with political cover to do so," it said.