A rain-weakened hillside collapsed in Ecuador’s capital, sweeping over homes and a sports field and killing at least 22 people, city officials said.

The Quito Security Department also said 32 people were injured and eight houses had collapsed, while others were damaged.

Neighbours had joined rescue workers in hunting through the ruins for survivors of the disaster that hit following nearly 24 hours of rainfall.

Ecuador Landslide
Residents and soldiers work to clear mud from the streets (Dolores Ochoa/AP)

The storm was pounding outside when Imelda Pacheco said she felt her house move as if an earthquake had struck. Suddenly water and rocks began to pour in through doors and windows and she fled before the building was destroyed.

“I barely had time to grab the hand of my 4-year-old son and I ran to the stairs, to the terrace. Suddenly the walls in front and to the side disappeared,” she told The Associated Press.

“We shouted to the neighbours on the first floor, but the water carried away the mother and daughter,” she said, standing before the ruins of her home.

“I thought I was going to die with my son. I hugged him strongly and we shook, I think from the cold and the fear.. We barely survived,” she added, breaking into tears.

Waves of mud, some three metres high, carried vehicles, motorcycles, rubbish bins and other debris under a heavy rain on Monday night in the neighbourhoods of La Gasca and La Comuna below the slopes of the Ruco Pinchincha mountain.

As the rescue began, police called for silence so that the cries of those trapped could be heard.

Quito Mayor Santiago Guarderas said the intense rains had saturated the soils, setting off the landslide.

Smaller waves of muddy water continued pouring down the ravine on Tuesday morning past weary neighbours trying to move stones, tree trunks and debris. An overturned taxi and other vehicles were partly buried in mud on a sports field.

“I’ve lost everything. I don’t have anything. Everything is over,” said 65-year-old Laura Quinonez, who stood beside an ambulance as her neighbours tried to recover appliances from their destroyed homes.