The Colombian government has declared a national emergency after at least 111 people were killed when a powerful earthquake struck the west of the country, knocking down buildings across several cities and leaving others trapped in the rubble.
The earthquake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June.
Mr De La Espriella said 87 people have been injured and 61 buildings have collapsed. He said rescuing victims is a “priority”.
The 7.4 magnitude quake, according to the US Geological Survey, struck at a depth of 107km near San Jose del Palmar, in Choco, a sparsely populated province on Colombia’s Pacific Coast, but was felt in major cities nationwide.
“Significant casualties and damage are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread,” the agency warned.
Watch: Building collapse in Colombia after earthquake
The highest reported death toll was in the western province of Risaralda in Colombia’s coffee-growing region, where Governor Juan Diego Patino, speaking by phone to Caracol Television, reported 42 fatalities.
In the province’s capital of Pereira, social media images showed a building with a cracked facade crash to the ground, sending up a dark cloud of dust and debris as onlookers on the street darted away.
The impact also toppled one of the towers atop a Gothic-style cathedral in Manizales, and forced nurses in Cali to wheel patients outside in hospital beds, social media and television images showed.
In nearby Manizales, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said three people were killed.
One person died in Buenaventura, Colombia’s main Pacific port, when a building collapsed, trapping several people, Mayor Ligia del Carmen Cordoba said.
Cali, one of Colombia’s biggest cities, was among the worst hit, though authorities have yet to confirm deaths there.
Mayor Alejandro Eder told Caracol at least 30 buildings had collapsed and rescue crews were working at 10 of them.
Caracol showed firefighters and Colombian Red Cross workers carrying a survivor on a stretcher from one collapsed building.
People are pulled from a collapsed building after an earthquake in Cali, Colombia
“At this point, two people have already been rescued alive, one elderly woman and one young girl. There are more people trapped,” Mr Eder told Blu Radio.
“We have at least 12 critical points and 25 collapsed structures that we are responding to.”
Choco Governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi said there were injuries and significant damage in Quibdo, the provincial capital, and warned residents about aftershocks.
Land of earthquakes and landslides
Smaller earthquakes are not uncommon in Colombia, which is crisscrossed by three ranges of the Andean mountains. However, it is landslides which have historically been the deadliest natural disasters in the country, with the Armero disaster in1985 killing some 25,000 people.
Cities in the country’s coffee region, including Armenia and Pereira, suffered a devastating 6.2 magnitude quake in 1999, which killed more than 1,000 people.
A map showing where the earthquake hit in Colombia
Mr De La Espriella, a right-wing politician who has never before held elected office, said in a video filmed while flying to Bogota that he was suspending his planned activities to lead emergency coordination efforts out of the capital.
Colombia’s civil aviation authority said flights were suspended at airports in Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura while inspectors checked for structural damage.
The US tsunami warning system said there was no tsunami threat after the quake, which occurred just after 1.30pm Irish time, was felt in nine departments and all 32 departmental capitals.
The Colombian Geological Service said 21 aftershocks were recorded and warned that additional tremors were likely.
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.
Watch: Cathedral partially collapses and debris falls from building after earthquake