Ecuadoran presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead after holding a rally in Quito on Wednesday evening, top officials said.

President Guillermo Lasso confirmed Villavicencio's death in a statement on Twitter, renamed X, vowing that "this crime will not go unpunished".

Local media, citing Interior Minister Juan Zapata, said Villavicencio was shot dead after the rally.

The 59-year-old centrist was one of eight candidates in the first round of the presidential election scheduled for August 20.

Lasso said he had summoned his top security officials for an urgent meeting on "this event that has shocked the country."

"Organised crime has gone too far, but the full weight of the law will be applied to them," Lasso said in his post.