Earthquake on Colombia's Pacific Coast causes injuries, damage

BOGOTA: An earthquake on Monday caused injuries and significant damage in a province on Colombia’s Pacific Coast as well as the city of Pereira, provincial governors said, after the tremor was felt in the capital Bogota and as far away as Venezuela.

“We have just experienced a major earthquake in the department of Choco. We are concerned about aftershocks. Although the epicenter was near San Jose del Palmar, there are injuries and significant damage to buildings in the capital, Quibdo. We are already carrying out a damage assessment and will issue the first official report shortly,” Choco Governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi said on X.

The governor of neighboring Risaralda province, Juan Diego Patino, told local Blu Radio there was “serious damage to some buildings” in Pereira, the provincial capital.

“What has just occurred is very severe. The images are truly shocking, with people injured and building facades collapsed,” he said.

The U.S. tsunami warning system said there was no tsunami warning. Colombia’s geological service revised the quake’s magnitude higher to 7.4 and said its depth was 96 km (60 miles), rather than the 79 km originally reported by authorities.

Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said it was in contact with local authorities to verify potential damage. Bogota’s mayor, Carlos Galan, said on X there was no major damage in the capital.

Reuters witnesses in the Venezuelan border state of Tachira and the central-western city of Barquisimeto reported the quake had been felt there. Venezuela was hit by devastating twin earthquakes in June, which killed more than 6,000 people, mostly on the coast near the capital, Caracas.