The Latest: Spain sends quake rescue team to Ecuador

Residents walk past a row of collapsed buildings felled by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Monday, April 18, 2016. The Saturday night quake left a trail of ruin along Ecuadorís normally placid Pacific Ocean coast. At least 350 people died and thousands are homeless. President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would ìsurely rise, and in a considerable way.î (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) (The Associated Press)

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Family members accompany a coffin containing the remains of a loved one who died in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, to a nearby cemetery in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Monday, April 18, 2016. The Saturday night quake left a trail of ruin along Ecuador’s normally placid Pacific Ocean coast. At least 350 people died and thousands are homeless. President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would “surely rise, and in a considerable way.” (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) (The Associated Press)

Firefighters recover a body from the debris of a collapsed building felled by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Portoviejo, Ecuador, Monday, April 18, 2016. The Saturday night quake left a trail of ruin along Ecuador’s normally placid Pacific Ocean coast. At least 350 people died and thousands are homeless. President Rafael Correa said early Monday that the death toll would “surely rise, and in a considerable way.” (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) (The Associated Press)

PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador – The Latest on Ecuador's devastating earthquake (all times local):

4:25 a.m.

Spain has sent a military plane with 47 search-and-rescue experts and their five dogs to Ecuador to help authorities look for survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 272 people.

The jet left a military base airport outside Madrid on Monday morning and was expected to arrive in the hard-hit city of Guayaquil in the afternoon.

The 39 soldiers and eight firefighters were sent after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said the death toll was sure to rise much higher amid evidence some people are still alive underneath rubble.

Correa said earlier that rescue teams were also coming in from Mexico and Colombia. He says the 7.8-magnitude earthquake is the worst natural disaster to befall the Andean nation since a 1949 earthquake in Ambato that killed thousands

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1:25 a.m.

Ecuador's president says the earthquake death toll in country has risen to at least 272 and is sure to go much higher.

After visiting areas hard hit by the quake, President Rafael Correa gave the new count to reporters early Monday and said it would "surely rise, and in a considerable way."

Correa says Ecuador will overcome the tragedy. He says "the Ecuadorean spirit knows how to move forward, and will know how to overcome these very difficult moments."

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1:10 a.m.

As Ecuador digs out from its strongest earthquake in decades, tales of devastating loss are everywhere amid the rubble. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake left a trail of ruin along Ecuador's normally placid Pacific Ocean coast, buckling highways, knocking down an air traffic control tower and flattening homes and buildings. At least 262 people died, including two Canadians, and thousands are homeless.

Portoviejo, a provincial capital of nearly 300,000, was among the hardest hit, with the town's mayor reporting at least 100 deaths. Among them are 17-year-old Sayira Quinde, her mother, father and toddler brother, crushed when a building collapsed on their car.

A grief stricken aunt, Johana Estupinan, is now heading to the town of Esmeraldas, where she will bury her loved ones and break the news to her sister's three now-orphaned children. The Quinde family had driven to her house from their home hours north to drop off Sayira before she was to start classes at a public university on a scholarship to study medicine.

The aunt says "I never thought my life would be destroyed in a minute."