At least 20 people have been killed after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Colombia and other Latin American countries on Monday, causing damage and injuries and building evacuations in the capital Bogota.
In the town of Pereira, 18 people were killed and others trapped in buildings that had collapsed, Mayor Mauricio Salazar told Caracol Radio.
“The situation is critical,” Salazar told Caracol Radio after the quake centred in neighbouring Choco province.
The Colombian geological service put the magnitude of the quake at 6.6 while its American counterpart USGS put it at 7.4, with an epicenter 100km (62 miles) underground in the west of Colombia.
It was felt in Ecuador and as far away as Panama to the north, and prompted building evacuations in Bogota, AFP reporters saw.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake shakes Colombia and Ecuador
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The governor of Colombia’s Choco province wrote on X that there were injuries and serious damage to buildings in the department’s capital Quibdo.
The mayor of Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, also reported “major damage”.
News outlets aired footage of some buildings with their facades ripped off by the quake.
In Bogota some people ran out into the street in their pajamas as emergency sirens rang out, AFP reporters saw.
Twin earthquakes in Venezuela of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 on June 24 killed more than 6,000 people and caused devastating property damage.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
