More than 100 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, causing buildings to collapse, damaging hospitals and infrastructure, and trapping people under the rubble.
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Authorities described it as the strongest earthquake to hit the country this century.
The earthquake struck just days after Abelardo de Espriella was sworn in as president, confronting his new administration with its first major crisis while the country was still dealing with the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes that struck neighboring Venezuela in June.
In a televised address to the nation at around 1 p.m. local time, the president declared a national state of emergency and said the death toll had reached 111.
“The national government has mobilized all its resources to protect lives, assist affected communities and provide aid wherever needed. The top priority is rescuing those trapped under the rubble,” he said.
De Espriella visited Quibdó, the capital of the coastal Chocó department, where he promised rental assistance to people who had lost their homes. He then traveled to Cali, the largest city in western Colombia.
The president had been expected to announce an updated nationwide death toll on Monday evening, but instead provided figures for Valle del Cauca, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there and 700 others were injured.
Some local media outlets reported that the nationwide death toll had reached 132, although the source of that figure was unclear.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.4 and struck at a depth of 107 kilometers. Colombia’s Geological Service described it as the strongest earthquake recorded in the country during the 21st century.
Authorities imposed curfews in Cali, Armenia and Manizales. The mayor of Cali said the risk of looting had prompted him to deploy police and military personnel in the streets.
Footage broadcast by Caracol television showed a group of people pulling a dust-covered baby girl from beneath a pile of rubble. The channel reported that the six-month-old girl and her mother were rescued from beneath a five-story building in Cali.
The city of Pereira suffered extensive damage, while rescue teams continued searching for survivors among the ruins of collapsed buildings.
Video verified by Reuters showed a four-story building collapsing in Pereira during the earthquake. Footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city’s neo-Gothic cathedral, one of its most famous landmarks, collapsing, with debris scattered across nearby streets.
Reuters footage showed rescue teams, police officers and volunteers removing rubble by hand and loading it onto trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath the debris. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency facilities, with debris falling onto ambulances parked below.
A firefighter in Cali said his team had rescued two women and two children from a collapsed building.
Colombia’s civil aviation authority suspended operations at several airports in the western part of the country while engineers carried out structural inspections.
Colombia lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an area prone to earthquakes, and experiences thousands of earthquakes every month, most of them minor.
Colombia’s Geological Service reported 21 aftershocks by late Monday and warned that further tremors could occur.
The country’s coffee-growing region was previously devastated by a magnitude-6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly in areas around Armenia and Pereira.
