‘They are trying to frighten our people’ – Ecuador’s leaders struggle to contain violence after gang attack on TV station

Country’s president had declared state of emergency on Monday as police and army seek to restore order

A screen grab shows a masked and armed man standing over journalists during a live broadcast in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Yuri Garcia

Gunmen with explosives stormed a TV station on-air in Ecuador on Tuesday night during a wave of violence around the nation that prompted President Daniel Noboa to name 22 gangs as terrorist organizations to be hunted by the military.

Police eventually rescued the TV staff and arrested the 13 men who burst into TC’s studio during a live broadcast with long-range guns, grenades and dynamites, according to witnesses in the coastal city of Guayaquil.