Dozens killed after large earthquake rocks region

A powerful earthquake shook western Colombia early on Monday morning.

Around five hours after the quake struck, officials around the country had reported at least 73 deaths, 67 of them just in two of the worst-hit states. 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?

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, later said that at least 27 people had died in the quake. 

Officials in Risaralda 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. 

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. 

The governor of the Choco region where the quake’s epicenter was located, Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi, said there were four dead and 69 wounded in her district as of late morning local time. 

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. 

Colombia’s newly-inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella said that he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency in San Jose del Palmar following the earthquake that struck the country.

“You are not alone. The state is present and taking action,” he said.

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

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