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Ecuador Declares War on Gang After TV Attack

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Ecuador's president has ordered that criminal gangs be "neutralized" after days of violence culminated in an attack on a television studio.

Masked gunmen broke into public television channel TC's live studio during a broadcast, forcing staff to the floor.

Police made 13 arrests following the attack, which injured two employees.

At least 10 people have been killed since a 60-day state of emergency began in Ecuador on Monday.

The emergency was declared after a notorious gangster vanished from his prison cell. It is unclear whether the incident at the TV studio in Guayaquil was related to the disappearance from a prison in the same city of the boss of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macías Villamar, or Fito as he is better known.

President Noboa said on Tuesday that an "internal armed conflict" now existed in the country and he was mobilising the armed forces to carry out "military operations to neutralise" what he called "transnational organised crime, terrorist organisations and belligerent non-state actors"

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