At least 17 killed after gunmen storm small-town bar in Ecuador

The South American nation has reeled under a substantial increase in violent crime over the last several years.

Gunmen in Ecuador have killed at least 17 people, including a child, in an attack on a bar, the latest incident to underscore the South American nation’s challenges with rising violent crime.

The country’s attorney general said on Monday that more than 40 pieces of ballistic evidence were recovered from the bar in the small town of El Empalme, located about 160 kilometres [100 miles] north of the city of Guayaquil in the coastal province of Guayas.

Images shared by Ecuadorian media show bodies and pools of blood across the floor of the bar.

Ecuador has reeled from a surge in violent crime over the last several years, which experts say is largely driven by criminal groups sparring over territory and lucrative drug trafficking routes.

Police said that groups of gunmen in two trucks opened fire on the bar with pistols and rifles on Sunday night in an attack that also injured at least 11 people, with other reports putting the number as high as 14.

One minor hit in the attack ran more than a kilometre before collapsing in the street and dying from his wounds.

The news agency AFP reported that the trucks full of men also shot and killed two more people at a different location, and that the men shouted “Active Wolves!” during the attack on the bar.

El Empalme police chief Oscar Valencia said the term was a possible reference to the criminal group Los Lobos, which competes with another group, Los Choneros, for control of drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and illegal mining operations.

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has pushed for expanded powers for the executive and state security forces in the name of addressing crime, measures that have mostly won over public support despite concerns over potential abuses.