BOGOTA, Colombia — A devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people and bringing down scores of buildings across multiple cities, President Abelardo de la Espriella said.
De la Espriella declared a national emergency to speed the release of recovery funds and said he planned to travel to the disaster area, with the worst impact centered around the rural Choco region.
The powerful Colombia earthquake left residents pinned beneath rubble, sent injured survivors rushing for help and forced evacuations from damaged homes, with tremors felt as far away as the capital, Bogotá.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey and Colombian geological authorities, the quake’s epicenter was near San Jose Del Palmar, a community of roughly 4,800 residents in Choco, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Bogota. The USGS said the earthquake struck at a depth of 66 miles (107 kilometers). Shaking was also reported in neighboring Ecuador and Panama, though officials there described the damage as limited.
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Regional officials said at least 40 deaths were confirmed in Risaralda, home to the severely damaged city of Pereira. Another 27 people were killed in Valle del Cauca, where Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, is located. The governor said at least three of the victims in Valle del Cauca were children.
Authorities also reported nine deaths in Choco, two in Caldas and the death of a 73-year-old person in Antioquia. Many others were injured across the country as emergency crews continued to assess the extent of the destruction.
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The earthquake damaged cities across western Colombia, including Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales. Residents joined rescue teams in searching through the debris of collapsed structures while officials warned of possible aftershocks. Colombia’s interior minister said more than 20 municipalities nationwide had been affected.
Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city from his home in hills of the city as buildings collapsed. Residents in the city and rescue workers were searching the rubble for survivors.
“My entire house shook,” he said. “I’ve never lived through such a powerful earthquake.”
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 y Buenaventura and Pereira.
The earthquakes left many in the Andean nation unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighboring 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, 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 travelers 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 said two people had died in the city “because of the quake” and asked residents to stay outside in case of aftershocks.
Authorities in the rural state of Choco, the epicenter of the quake, reported injured people and damaged buildings in the capital, but provided few details.
In Cali, a city 2 million people, Mayor Alejandro Eder said that residents were trapped in at least 19 buildings that had collapsed.
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 José del Palmar following the earthquake that struck the country.
“You are not alone. The state is present and taking action,” he said.
