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.”
In Bogota, the quake was felt strongly.
“After the earthquake was felt around 7:34 a.m., as of this hour, there are no reports of impacts or structural damage, just some cracks in buildings,” Bogota Mayor Carlos Galán said in a post on X.
Dramatic footage posted on social media showed the quake shaking buildings. Other videos posted online showed what appeared to be a damaged church and other structures in the quake’s aftermath. The Epoch Times could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the videos.
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella said in a social media post that he has “directly assumed leadership of the emergency response” to the quake.
“I have ordered the establishment of a Unified Command Post to coordinate the attention to the damages and the affected individuals,” he said, adding, “I will also be personally in Pereira to accompany the affected people and verify the Government’s response.”
The Colombian Maritime Authority ruled out any tsunami threat to the Colombian Pacific coast following the quake.
The governor of Antioquia state, meanwhile, said in a statement that so far, there have been “no reports of victims or injuries,” according to local media outlet El Espectador. The state includes the Colombian city of Medellín, the second-largest in the country.
The quake was also felt by residents in neighboring Ecuador, according to the El Comercio newspaper.
Monday’s tremor comes weeks after two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes hammered nearby Venezuela in June. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed, and more than 5,000 people died, officials have said.
