HAVANA, January 22. /TASS/. Ecuadorian police detained 68 people after an attack on a hospital in the western province of Guayas, where armed disturbances took place following recent gang-instigated prison riots, the press service of the Ecuadorian police reported.

"The National Police conducted an operation in which they detained 68 suspects linked to the takeover of a room in a medical center in Yaguachi, Guayas Province," the Ecuadorian police’s account on social network X (formerly Twitter) says.

According to law enforcement officials, the intruders attacked the hospital in an attempt to free a gang member who had been injured in an earlier shootout. The gangster died while in the hospital. Upon detaining the suspects, Ecuadorian police confiscated firearms and illegal drugs.

Ecuador's security crisis escalated on January 7 following the prison escape of Los Choneros drug gang leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known by his alias, "Fito." The Ecuadorian armed forces and police have detained more than 2,000 people since the beginning of the unrest sparked by prison riots that spread across Ecuador’s correctional facilities after Fito’s escape. Law enforcement personnel seized nearly 500 firearms, approximately an equal number of bombs, and over five tons of narcotic substances. On January 8, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of public emergency for 60 days and imposed a curfew.