Officials in Colombia are reporting injuries, people trapped inside collapsed buildings and serious damage after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook western Colombia and the region on Monday morning.
The quake’s epicenter was reported in the municipality of San José Del Palmar in the department of Chocó. There, Gov. Nubia Carolina Córdoba-Curi said on social media that injuries and serious damage to buildings have been reported in the capital city of Quibdó, about 188 miles northwest of the reported epicenter.
“We are already conducting a damage assessment to issue the first official report,” Córdoba-Curi wrote on X in Spanish.
A man leaves an apartment building after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, on Monday.Santiago Saldarriaga / AP
Alejandro Eder, mayor of Cali, said that at least 20 buildings have collapsed in the city “with people trapped inside.” Emergency response teams have already begun to set tents in the area to coordinate rescue efforts, Eder added.
According to Colombia’s civil aviation authority, airports in Pereira, Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura “have been affected.” Flights at these airports have been suspended “pending an assessment of structural damage to the facilities.”
Newly sworn-in Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella said he has “personally taken charge of the emergency response in San José del Palmar” and ordered the “establishment of a Unified Command Post to coordinate the response to the damage and assist those affected.”
De La Espriella added he is awaiting a “detailed report on the situation and the most urgent needs.”
Authorities did not immediately report deaths.
The earthquake follows two back-to-back 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela in late June. Those earthquakes destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed more than 5,000 people.