One person was killed and several more were injured in an explosion Tuesday at a busy shopping center in the port city of Guayaquil, local authorities said, as Ecuador grapples with a surge of violence related to the Latin American drug trade.

Police said they were still investigating the cause of Tuesday's explosion, which rattled local businesses, restaurants and hotels in a middle-class area.

Samantha Vera told AFP at around 6 pm local time (2300 GMT) she was just "a few meters away" from the explosion.

"We ran away out of fear that something else might happen. We're in shock," the 40-year-old said.

Claudia Quimi, who owns a nearby salon, said the glass windows shook from the "terrible...horrifying blast."

Ecuador has become an epicenter of the global cocaine trade as cartels and m

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