Two kids and a toddler were tragically killed when a rockfall crushed them as they played next to a huge dolphin statue.
Several beachgoers were just feet away from the cement monument when the promontory it was built on suddenly crumbled.
Several were hit by the falling rocks yesterday (11 Mar), including 12-year-old Matías, who was crushed to death on the spot.
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Two others, aged one and nine, were taken to a local hospital, but medics could only pronounce them dead.
A fourth child, his mum, and two other people managed to run away in the nick of time, witnesses told local media.
Emergency teams were called to the scene at Delfín Beach in Posorja, Ecuador.
Rescuers were seen carrying a motionless body away on a stretcher.
Local Narcisa Zambrano told local media that her sister Janeth saved a two-year-old boy’s life.
She said: “She gave him CPR because the child looked almost dead.”
Other witnesses told how a girl sustained a severe blow to the head, while a woman broke her legs when the rocks smashed into her.
According to local media, a total of four people sustained non-fatal injuries.
It’s not the first time the 85m long, 20m tall dolphin statue had crumbled away.
Part of it broke up onto the beach below when lightning struck it during a torrential downpour in February last year.
It had reportedly cost the local authorities 375,000 USD (£293,000) to build.
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