Bogota: A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia Monday, killing at least 69 people, trapping residents under debris of collapsed buildings and forcing people to evacuate their homes as far as the capital of Bogota.
The epicentre was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region, about 250 miles (400 kilometres) west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey and Colombia’s counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles (107 kilometres). The quake was also felt in neighbouring Ecuador and Panama, though minimal damage was reported there.
Local officials confirmed that at least 40 people were killed in the department of Risaralda, where the hard-hit city of Pereira is located, and 27 people in the Valle del Cauca department, where Colombia’s third-biggest city, Cali, is located. Two people also died in the city of Manizales.
At least three of those killed in Valle del Cauca were children, the governor said.
The quake left cities across the west of the country – Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales – ravaged. Residents and search teams picked through the rubble of collapsed buildings amid concerns by authorities of aftershocks. Colombia’s interior minister said more than 20 municipalities across the country had been hit.
Colombia’s Pacific region around the quake’s epicentre lies along the “Ring of Fire”, the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.
Most powerful quake in the last decade, authorities say
Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city as buildings collapsed. Residents and rescue workers were searching the rubble for survivors.
“My entire house shook. I’ve never lived through such a powerful earthquake,” he said. “We’re thanking God we’re alive.”
Colombia’s Geological Service said Monday that it had been “the highest magnitude earthquake registered in Colombia in the last decade” and that it had been followed by two 2.8 and 4.8-magnitude aftershocks. Authorities also reported that flights were suspended in the airports of Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira.
The earthquakes left many in the Andean nation unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighbouring Venezuela in late June, destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed more than 5,000 people. At the same time, the quake brought down buildings in Colombia, and desperate families in Venezuela continued to search the ruins for the bodies of their loved ones.
In Pereira, photos and videos published by local media showed pieces of the airport ceiling falling down on travellers taking shelter and screaming, and people running through rubble in a panic.
Pereira’s mayor, Mauricio Salazar, told a local radio station that at least 18 people had died and that many more were trapped under “a massive quantity of collapsed buildings.”
In nearby Manizales, a city nestled in the coffee-producing mountains of Colombia, one of the towers of the neo-Gothic cathedral collapsed and fell on the nave. Jorge Eduardo Rojas, the mayor of Manizales, asked residents to stay outside in case of aftershocks.
Authorities in the rural state of Choco, the epicentre of the quake, reported injured people and damaged buildings in the capital, but provided few details.
In Cali, a city of 2 million people, Mayor Alejandro Eder said that residents were trapped in at least 19 buildings that had collapsed.
Powerful quakes are rare in Colombia, where smaller quakes are common
Small earthquakes, known as “temblores,” are common in central and western Colombia, but those above 6.0 magnitude are rare. In 1999, a 6.2 magnitude quake near the city of Armenia killed more than 1,100 people.
Colombia’s newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella said Monday that he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency in San Jose del Palmar following the earthquake.
“You are not alone. The state is present and taking action,” he said.
Response to the earthquake presents the first major challenge to de la Espriella, a Trump ally who was sworn in as president over the weekend.
Messages of support rolled in from leaders across the Americas, including Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and the United States.
“The Trump administration is closely monitoring the large earthquake that struck Colombia and stands ready to support the people of Colombia”, and de la Espriella, wrote Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X.
A number of countries offered aid, and the UN deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, said “we stand ready to help as needed.
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