American Marconi Wireless News - One dead, several injured in explosion at busy Ecuador shopping center

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 mafias shed blood to gain turf.

Violence and chaotic scenes like Tuesday's explosion are on the rise in Guayaquil, where homicide, extortion, robberies and other crimes increasing as the city grapples with its prime coastal location for drug trafficking and other illegal enterprises.

Last month, an explosion went off outside a prison in Guayaquil days after a riot at a different prison left 13 inmates and a guard dead in another part of Ecuador.

As of August, more than 5,200 homicides have been recorded in Ecuador this year alone, and roughly a third of them occurred in Guayaquil, a city of 2.8 million people and the nation's commercial hub.

P.Stevenson--AMWN