At least 111 people were killed Monday in the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that shook western Colombia, the country’s newly inaugurated president Abelardo De La Espriella said in the afternoon.
De La Espriella said he has declared a national disaster to allow for the mobilization and coordination of emergency efforts. According to the president, more than 1,600 buildings were damaged by the morning quake.
Elected officials in the region have reported dozens of injuries, people trapped inside collapsed buildings and serious structural damage throughout the region.
The quake’s epicenter was reported in the municipality of San José del Palmar in the department of Chocó.
In Valle del Cauca, about 254 miles south of Chocó, Governor Dilian Francisca Toro said “the situation is serious.”
She reported the deaths of 27 people across Valle Del Cauca, including three children. Speaking from the University Hospital of the Valley, Toro said the facility suffered “structural collapses” and that rescue and evacuation operations were completed Monday.
In Chocó, Governor 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.
As of 1:02 p.m., Córdoba-Curi reported 12 deaths and 84 people injured in Chocó.
In Pereira, a city in Colombia’s coffee-growing region, Mayor Mauricio Salazar said 18 people had died. In nearby Manizales, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said two people were killed.
Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, said that at least 20 buildings had collapsed in the city and some had “people trapped inside.” Emergency response teams have set tents in the area to coordinate rescue efforts, Eder added.
Cali is Colombia’s third largest city. Sunday marked the beginning of a weeklong festival celebrating the region’s Afro-Pacific culture, which brings hundreds of thousands of tourists to the city.
Cali resident Luis Angel Sarria told NBC News he strongly felt the earthquake there.
“There are many damaged buildings, collapsed buildings, people trapped, and fatalities; the quake felt here was very severe,” Sarria, a taxi driver, said in Spanish. “What has happened here in my country has been very hard and very sad.”
While Sarria and his immediate family are safe, he said, “We are saddened by the loss of life.”
