A major earthquake struck the western portion of Colombia on Monday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with local officials reporting damage and injuries.
The quake registered at 7.4 magnitude on the Richter scale, the USGS reported. It hit around 3 miles to the east of San José del Palmar in the western portion of the country, roughly 250 miles to the west of Bogota, the capital.
The USGS reported it struck at a depth of 66 miles. In a statement on social media, the governor of Chocó state, Nubia Cordoba, said her office is “concerned about aftershocks” triggered by the quake, according to a translation.
“Although the epicenter was in San José del Palmar, in the capital Quibdó there are injuries and severe damage to buildings. We are already conducting the damage assessment to issue the first official report,” she wrote on X, describing the quake as a “severe seismic event.”
