By Vanessa BuschschlüterBBC News

Watch: ‘They hunted us’ says Ecuador TV station attack victim

Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has challenged armed gangs to take on the military rather than civilians as soldiers were deployed to combat the criminal groups.

Mr Noboa declared a state of emergency on Monday after a wave of gang violence swept through the Andean country.

In the most dramatic incident, armed men stormed a TV station and threatened the staff during a live broadcast.

More than 300 suspects have been arrested under the state of emergency.

Mr Noboa struck a defiant tone in a radio interview on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old president, who has only been in power for two months, challenged the gangs. “Be brave, fight the soldiers,” he told them, referring to the fact that most of those who have been targeted by the gangs have been civilians or unarmed prison guards.

At least 14 people have been killed in recent days as gang members set off explosive devices, burned vehicles and kidnapped police officers on duty.

One hundred and fifty-eight prison guards and 20 employees working for the prison system have also been taken hostage by inmates, officials said. An armed forces commander said on Wednesday that so far none of the hostages been killed.

President Noboa said Ecuador was living through “a very tough moment” but insisted that his government would be tough on the gangs and “any judges or prosecutors who back these gangs”.

Reuters
Soldiers were guarding the presidential palace in Quito on Wednesday

The BBC’s Will Grant who is in Guayaquil, the port city worst hit by the recent violence, says its residents are still struggling to make sense of the gang rampage.

One of the journalists who lived through the storming of the TC television studios in Guayaquil

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