Rescues give Ecuadoranshope amid despair

MANTA, Ecuador — Rescuers in Ecuador pulled three people out alive Monday after being trapped for more than 32 hours in the rubble of a shopping center that was flattened by last weekend’s powerful earthquake.

Televised images of the dramatic pre-dawn rescue in the port city of Manta gave Ecuadorans hope that scores of people still unaccounted for may yet be found even as the death toll from Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake climbed over 350, including an American who was not immediately identified by the State Department.

A group of firefighters applauded as she emerged head first from the debris, disoriented, caked in dust and complaining of pain but otherwise in good health.

Authorities said another woman remained trapped and was being given water and other supplies while rescuers attempt to remove a heavy concrete slab pinning down her legs.

Among the many buildings that were flattened was a control tower at the airport that was home to U.S. antinarcotics missions in South America until Correa, a critic of the U.S.-led war on drugs in Latin America, kicked the Americans out.