Death toll rises to over 100

A powerful earthquake shook western Colombia early on Monday morning.

Around six hours after the quake struck, Colombia’s president said that 111 people had been confirmed dead around the country.

Rescue teams were working to free residents after buildings collapsed in Cali and other cities.

The epicenter was on the eastern tip of the Choco province on Colombia’s Pacific coast.

What is the latest?

Colombia’s newly-inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella said that he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency.

He said that locating anyone still potentially trapped was the highest priority for rescuers and declared a national state of emergency. 

“As of 12:30 [local time], the toll stood at 111 dead and 87 injured, with 1,575 homes damaged, 37 completely destroyed, 61 buildings collapsed, and 18 health centers and 52 schools damaged,” de la Espriella said from Bogota.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU stands “ready to provide more support” to Colombia. The bloc’s satellite service, Copernicus, has already been mobilized to aid rescuers.

“Tonight, Europe’s heart is with the people of Colombia,” she wrote on social media.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was “closely monitoring” the situation and stood “ready to support the people of Colombia.”

What’s happening on the ground? 

The mayor of Cali, Alejandro Eder, said that at least 20 buildings had collapsed, in some cases with people trapped inside. 

“Residents of Cali, we currently have at least 20 collapsed structures in the city with people trapped inside; we are already managing this emergency alongside all of Cali’s rescue agencies,” Eder said on Instagram, posting an accompanying video statement. “I have requested support — specifically rescue personnel — from the mayors of Bogota and Medellin.”

Authorities in the Valle del Cauca, whose capital city is Cali, said that at least 27 people had died in the quake, in numbers issued prior to the president’s address. 

Officials in Risaralda had said that 40 people had died across the state, at least 18 of them in the capital Pereira based on earlier comments from the mayor. 

The governor of the Choco region where the quake’s epicenter was located, Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi, said there were 12 dead and 84 wounded in her district as of lunch time local time. 

And the mayor of Manizales, Jorge Eduardo Rojas, said in a radio interview that two people were killed in his city, in the Caldas region not far northeast of Pereira. 

Colombia’s civil aviation authority reported damage at six relatively minor airports and said flights were suspended while it was examined.

“Damage is reported at the airports of Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, and Buenaventura. For safety reasons, air operations at these terminals remain suspended until structural damage to the infrastructure is assessed,” it wrote online, later adding Cali’s airport to this list. 

What do we know about the quake’s size and location? 

The US Geological Survey (USGS) measured the quake at magnitude 7.4. Colombia’s national authority at first logged a smaller figure but later revised its reading up to 7.4 as well. 

The epicenter was located just south of the Tatama National Nature Reserve, near Choco’s eastern state border.

The epicenter was roughly equidistant from Colombia’s three main cities, Bogota to its east, Medellin to its north and Cali to its south. 

The closest major population center, Cartago, is home to about 140,000 people and around 30 kilometers (roughly 20 miles) from the quake’s epicenter. 

The USGS said the quake was also quite deep, striking around 107 kilometers below the ground. It estimated that most of the western half of Colombia would feel the tremors. 

Tremors could also be felt in neighboring Ecuador to the south, and to the north and east in Panama and Venezuela.

USGS also recorded a fairly large aftershock, at magnitude 5.0, a little under an hour after the main quake.

The so-called Ring of Fire — the world’s most active belt of tectonic plates and volcanoes encircling the Pacific Ocean — runs along Colombia’s coastline not far from the epicenter of Monday’s quake. 

Edited by: Rebecca Staudenmaier

If you rely on our team for trusted reporting, please take a moment to select us as your Preferred Source on Google, so you’ll always see our verified news first.