Gang Members Storm Hospital in Ecuador Looking for Rival

The BBC reports that gang violence in Ecuador has been on the upswing in last few years, and a hospital in Chone got an unwanted demonstration of that. Seven members of a gang stormed the facility looking for a member of a rival gang named "Dirty Face." The assailants held five staff members hostage for about an hour as they searched unsuccessfully for their 17-year-old rival.

"They didn't know the hospital layout, it seems, and that's why these delinquents were roaming through the entire hospital," a hospital official tells the local El Diario newspaper. Police were finally able to round up the seven gang members, and no injuries were reported. The BBC notes that the uptick in gang violence has been blamed on Mexican drug cartels expanding their territory into Ecuador. (More Ecuador stories.)