Masked men armed with pistols and pump action guns broke into the set of a public Television channel in Guayaquil, Ecuador, during a live broadcast on Tuesday, and the president issued a decree declaring that the violence-plagued country had entered an “internal armed conflict.” The gunmen where seen telling staff to lie down on the floor and shouted that they had “bombs, while shouting and noises similar to gunshots could be heard in the background. Police have arrested 13 persons in connection to the incident which injured two employees. No one was killed in the attack. The incident was aired live, although the station’s signal was cut off after about 15 minutes. Is was revealed that some of the assailants ran from the studio and tried to hide when they realized they were surrounded by police.
The national police said on social media that its specialized units had been deployed to the television station, before publishing footage of armed officers surrounding the building.
Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, had ordered that criminal gangs be ‘neutralised’ after days of violence culminated in an attack on a television studio.
Noboa declared a state of emergency. Peru has also declared an emergency on its northern border with the country and ordered the “immediate deployment of a police border, in a bid to boost security.
The emergency was declared after a notorious gangster vanished from his prison cell. It is unclear whether the incident at the TV studio in Guayaquil was related to the disappearance from a prison in the same city of the boss of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macías Villamar, or Fito as he is better known.
President Noboa said on Tuesday that an "internal armed conflict" now existed in the country and he was mobilising the armed forces to carry out "military operations to neutralise" what he called "transnational organised crime, terrorist organisations and belligerent non-state actors".
Ecuador has been rocked by a series of attacks, including the abductions of several police officers.
On Tuesday, Ecuadorean officials announced that another gang leader, Fabricio Colón Pico of the Los Lobos group, had escaped from a prison in the town of Riobamba. Colón Pico was captured on Friday as part of a kidnapping investigation and has also been accused of trying to murder one of the nation’s lead prosecutors.
Other attacks have included an explosion near the house of the president of the National Justice Court and the Monday night kidnappings of four police officers. Police said one officer was abducted in the capital, Quito, and three in Quevedo city.
