The day so far
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At least 111 have died and 87 people injured after dozens of buildings collapsed following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Monday morning – the largest to hit the country so far this century. After declaring a state of national disaster, Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, said in an address to the nation that his government had deployed all of its capabilities “to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed”. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble,” he said after around 1,600 buildings had been damaged, including at least 61 that completely collapsed.
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The president declared an emergency to expedite funding for the quake recovery while saying he would visit the disaster zone. “We aren’t going to leave people alone. They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination,” he said.
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The quake hit the remote Chocó region around 7.30am local time on Monday morning and was felt as far as the capital Bogotá (250 miles away), as well as neighbouring countries Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama. The epicentre was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people, and the initial quake was followed by two 2.8 and 4.8 magnitude aftershocks.
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Local officials confirmed deaths across several regions, including the coffee region of Risaralda and in Valle del Cauca, while rescue teams race to free people trapped under debris of collapsed buildings. Among the worst-hit areas was the city of Pereira, where at least 40 people have been killed, according to the mayor. In the department of Chocó, at least 12 people were killed, according to the local governor there, and at least 27 deaths have been reported in the neighbouring Valle del Cauca department, including at least three children and including 15 people in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city.
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The United States and countries across Europe and Latin America offered support. The Trump administration is “closely monitoring” the earthquake, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said earlier, adding that Washington “stands ready to support” the people and the pro-Trump government. Other countries including Ecuador, France, Mexico and Brazil also offered support.
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It all comes less than two months after two earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela, killing more than 6,100 people.
Key events
Colombia’s president says the national government “stands with the people of Chocó” and that “immediate economic resources and humanitarian aid have already been allocated to support the more than 1,400 affected families and individuals”.
Abelardo de la Espriella – facing his first major crisis as president – also said on X that injured people and those requiring priority medical attention were being transferred to Medellín “with all available hospital capacity”.
His post said (in a translation):
Additionally, temporary rental subsidies will be implemented for families whose homes were damaged.
Our priority is and will continue to be the lives and well-being of the affected communities.
De la Espriella finished his post:
¡Firme por la Patria!” (Steadfast for the Homeland)
US pledges $15.5m for Colombia quake relief
The US has announced $15.5m in earthquake aid for Colombia and said it is ready to support the new president’s response.
The state department said on social media the funding would go to “emergency shelter, food, protection and earthquake assessments”.
The post said:
We are united in prayer with the Colombian people and stand ready to support President [Abelardo de la Espriella] and his government as they assess the needs on the ground.
At the weekend the state department announced the Trump administration would provide $1bn in security assistance to the government of the new rightwing president, who used his inaugural speech to pledge a fight against drug trafficking as well as austerity measures to restore economic confidence.
Further to the last post: Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Colombia’s third-largest city of Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building.
As he spoke, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.
“They are alive,” he told Reuters. “We are making space so we can free them and get them out.”
Juan Carlos Osorio told Caracol Television that the collapse of one building “sounded like a bomb”, as he helped remove debris from a collapsed structure in Cali.
All of us neighbours are working together, forming human chains. We need heavy equipment. There are many people trapped.
Reports from Chocó, near the epicentre of the quake, have been slowed by communications outages, with some areas still lacking mobile phone service hours after the earthquake.
Governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba said 12 people had been killed and 84 injured in the largely rural area.
The quake’s heaviest casualties appeared to be concentrated in Risaralda, part of Colombia’s coffee-growing region. Pereira, the department’s capital, suffered extensive damage, with rescue workers continuing to search collapsed buildings for survivors.
A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during the quake, according to Reuters-verified video, while footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city’s landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.
Reuters footage showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shovelling debris by hand and loading rubble into trucks as they searched for trapped survivors. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.
Colombia’s Pacific region around the epicentre of the earthquake lies along the Ring of Fire, the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s quakes occur.
The Pacific, particularly the Chocó region where the quake hit, is one of Colombia’s poorest and is nestled in dense jungle. Much of the region is reachable only by boat or plane, which may pose a problem for authorities in assessing the wider toll, as the AP reports.
Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake’s powerful magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.
“This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn’t cause as much shaking,” she said, quoted by Reuters. “At this magnitude, it did actually cause a lot of shaking.”
The Colombia earthquake has left many people trapped under the debris of damaged buildings as their loved ones and rescue workers search through the rubble.
Search teams and civilians picked through the remains of destroyed buildings in the country’s third-largest city, Cali, passing large pieces of concrete and other rubble down a long line of volunteers.
“Our building has basically been left in ruins, and the building next to ours? Completely collapsed,” said Álvaro López, who cradled his dog as he watched the search.
The desperate scene recalled the searches still ongoing in neighbouring Venezuela weeks after that country was devastated by back-to-back quakes in June, the Associated Press reports.
Besides Cali, the quake-ravaged cities across western Colombia including Pereira, Quibdo and Manizales and was felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama.
The day so far
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At least 111 have died and 87 people injured after dozens of buildings collapsed following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Monday morning – the largest to hit the country so far this century. After declaring a state of national disaster, Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, said in an address to the nation that his government had deployed all of its capabilities “to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed”. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble,” he said after around 1,600 buildings had been damaged, including at least 61 that completely collapsed.
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The president declared an emergency to expedite funding for the quake recovery while saying he would visit the disaster zone. “We aren’t going to leave people alone. They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination,” he said.
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The quake hit the remote Chocó region around 7.30am local time on Monday morning and was felt as far as the capital Bogotá (250 miles away), as well as neighbouring countries Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama. The epicentre was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people, and the initial quake was followed by two 2.8 and 4.8 magnitude aftershocks.
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Local officials confirmed deaths across several regions, including the coffee region of Risaralda and in Valle del Cauca, while rescue teams race to free people trapped under debris of collapsed buildings. Among the worst-hit areas was the city of Pereira, where at least 40 people have been killed, according to the mayor. In the department of Chocó, at least 12 people were killed, according to the local governor there, and at least 27 deaths have been reported in the neighbouring Valle del Cauca department, including at least three children and including 15 people in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city.
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The United States and countries across Europe and Latin America offered support. The Trump administration is “closely monitoring” the earthquake, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said earlier, adding that Washington “stands ready to support” the people and the pro-Trump government. Other countries including Ecuador, France, Mexico and Brazil also offered support.
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It all comes less than two months after two earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela, killing more than 6,100 people.
Mayor of Pereira declares state of emergency
The mayor of Pereira has declared a state of public emergency and manifest urgency, along with a curfew that will be in effect from 6pm on Monday until 5am Tuesday in the following areas: Centro, Comuna Universidad, and SubCentro de la Comuna Cuba.
A car-free day measure will also start at 4pm on Monday and all day on Tuesday. Classes in educational institutions are also suspended.
“As mayor of Pereira, I must appeal to the solidarity of all Pereirans to go home because we need traffic to flow for emergency response agencies. We need to address this emergency. That is why, starting at this moment, I declare the Exceptional State of Curfew. Starting at this moment and indefinitely, classes are suspended in all educational institutions,” said Mauricio Salazar.
In the city, located in the heart of the coffee-producing mountains of Colombia and around 35 miles from the earthquake’s epicentre, 40 people have been reported dead. According to the mayor’s update, 65 buildings collapsed in the metropolitan area, and people are assumed trapped in 15 of them.
Several clinics were forced to close due either to demand on services or infrastructure risks, while Matecaña airport “suffered damage to its facilities, with several people deceased”.
Several people are also trapped in gondolas in Megacable, and the mayor said the rescue process for them would begin soon, but for the time being “their lives are not in danger at this moment” and “priority is being given to collapsed buildings”.
Colombia’s vice-president, José Manuel Restrepo Abondano, posted on X:
Mr. President, I heed your instruction. We already have the support of our international allies who have responded with solidarity and commitment. We will not rest until that aid reaches every family that needs it and contributes to the recovery of the affected territories. Today the world extends a hand to #Colombia, and we will stand by every community struck by this tragedy, working tirelessly to help it move forward.
As we reported earlier, world leaders including the US and EU have sent messages of solidarity and offered support to Colombia.
Ecuador’s president Daniel Noboa Azin also offered 47 rescuers, specialized dogs, and equipment with autonomy to operate for 7 days. “We are ready to mobilize whenever you require,” he wrote on X.
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum also wrote: “Of course, all the support that the people of Colombia may require; we’ll be there.”
Brazil’s Lula also expressed his solidarity, writing on X: “Brazil remains at Colombia’s disposal to provide the necessary support.”
Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, said he was in communication with Colombian officials and was “ready to provide immediate support with our rescue teams, medical personnel, paramedics, supplies, or any other assistance that our Colombian brothers and sisters deem necessary”.
In Europe, French president Emmanuel Macron said: “I extend, on behalf of France, my most sincere thoughts to the Colombian people. I think of the victims, their families, the injured, and all those who have been affected by this disaster. Our solidarity also goes to the rescue teams and all those who are working, with courage, to assist the affected populations. In this ordeal, Colombia can count on our friendship and our support.”
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez also offered “affection and solidarity with the Colombian people” and said Spain “stands with Colombia” at this difficult time.
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni said she was “anxiously” following updates on the earthquake. “In these difficult hours, Italy stands in solidarity with the Colombian people, the affected families, and all those engaged in rescue and assistance operations,” she said.
And Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine stands in “full support” and offered his condolences to those who have lost loved ones. “We call on everyone around the world who can support the affected people and countries right now to step up and help,” he wrote on X.
Colombian pop star Shakira has said her heart is with “everyone who felt this earthquake today”.
“In times like these, we Colombians know how to come together and support one another,” she wrote on X. “All my strength and love for my homeland. Let’s embrace tightly and stay tuned to the instructions so we can help as soon as possible.”
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday that the European Union was “ready to provide more support” to Colombia.
“Tonight, Europe’s heart is with the people of Colombia after the terrible earthquake in the Choco region. We have already mobilised Copernicus, our satellite service, to help with rescue operations,” she wrote on social media.
Eyewitness: ‘People were falling and being struck by things’
Thomas Graham
Santiago Velázquez, an industrial advisor, was driving to his son’s school in the suburbs between Pereira and Cartago, in Colombia’s Risaralda province, when the quake hit.
All the cars had to stop because they were being thrown around as the earth shook, Velázquez said.
He was already outside when it happened. “But people were falling and being struck by things as they tried to get out of their buildings,” he said.
Traffic is totally stuck at the moment, so Velázquez is getting a motorbike into the centre to try and help friends and family.
He knows of one landslide that carried away a few houses, and he had heard reports of some five-storey buildings in the suburbs that are “totally cracked”.
Some areas were without water, light or gas. A “disaster”, Velázquez said.
In an address to the nation around midday (local time), president de la Espriella said his government had deployed all of its capabilities “to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed”.
“The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble,” he said.
The 7.4 magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles) in Choco, a sparsely populated province on Colombia’s Pacific coast, but was felt in major cities nationwide.
More than 100 people dead after earthquake: Colombian president
Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, said the death toll from the earthquake has now reached 111, Reuters is reporting.
At least 87 were injured and 61 buildings collapsed, he said, noting the rescue of survivors was his priority.
At least 82 killed after powerful earthquake hits western Colombia
The death toll continues to climb after a powerful earthquake hit western Colombia on Monday.
At least 82 people have been confirmed dead, Reuters is reporting.
The province of Risaralda, in Colombia’s coffee-growing region, has suffered the highest toll so far, with governor Juan Diego Patino reporting 42 fatalities.
Dozens of injuries and heavy damage to buildings were also reported in Choco, the province closest to the epicentre of the 7.4 magnitude quake.
Abelardo De La Espriella, who was only sworn in as president a few days ago, has declared a national state of emergency to coordinate rescue efforts.
Colombia declares state of national disaster after 7.4 magnitude earthquake
In the last hour, President Abelardo De La Espriella officially declared a situation of national disaster as the preliminary death toll rose to at least 72.
This will allow the executive branch to bypass bureaucratic hurdles to more quickly mobilise emergency funds and reallocate state resources to the most affected regions.
The decision was taken as the president convened an emergency meeting at the crisis room of Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management in Bogotá.
