47 dead, buildings collapsed as 7.4-magnitude earthquake shakes western Colombia

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA: At least 47 people were killed, and dozens of buildings collapsed in cities across western Colombia on Monday after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the South American nation.

The quake trapped residents under debris, leaving many more injured and forcing people to evacuate their homes as far as the capital, Bogotá.

The epicentre was in San José del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Chocó region about 250 miles (400 kilometres) west of Bogotá, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Colombia’s counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles (107 kilometres). The quake was also felt in neighbouring Ecuador and Panama, though minimal damage was reported there.

Local officials confirmed that at least 18 people had been killed in Pereira, two in Manizales, and 27 in the Valle del Cauca department, where Colombia’s third-biggest city, Cali, is located.

Cities across the west of the country — Pereira, Quibdó, Cali and Manizales — were left ravaged. A mix of residents and search teams picked through the rubble of collapsed buildings amid concerns by authorities of aftershocks. Colombia’s interior minister said more than 20 municipalities across the country had been hit.

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 the hills as buildings collapsed. Residents 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 the quake was “the highest magnitude earthquake registered in Colombia in the last decade” and that it had been followed by two aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 4.8. Authorities also reported that flights were suspended at the airports of Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, and Pereira.

The earthquakes left many in the Andean nation unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighbouring Venezuela in late June, destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed more than 5,000 people. As 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 on travellers taking shelter and screaming, and people running through rubble in 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, 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 Chocó, the epicentre of the quake, reported injured people and damaged buildings in the capital, but provided few details.

In Cali, a city of 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 magnitude 6.0 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 he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency in San José del Palmar following the earthquake.

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

(With input from AP/RSS)