At least 20 people have died so far in a magnitude-7.4 earthquake that struck western Colombia on the 10th local time, according to a preliminary tally by local authorities. Dozens of buildings collapsed, and the scale of damage is expected to grow.
According to Reuters and other foreign media, Mauricio Salazar, the mayor of Pereira in western Colombia, said in an interview with a local outlet that 18 residents died in the powerful quake and that additional people were trapped in collapsed buildings.
Pereira is the capital of Risaralda Department, about 60 kilometers east of the epicenter of the quake.
Jorge Eduardo Rojas, the mayor of Manizales, north of Pereira, said in a local radio interview that two residents died there in the quake.
Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, Colombia's third-most populous city, posted on X (Twitter), "At least 20 structures have collapsed in Cali and people are trapped."
The casualty toll could rise. The local outlet Blu Radio earlier reported damage such as severe structural harm to buildings in western cities including Manizales, Cali and Armenia.
The government has not yet issued an official tally of the injured and the dead.
Colombia's aviation authority said that after the quake it received damage reports from six western airports, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura.
President Abelardo De la Espriella, who took office on the 7th, said on X that he ordered the convening of a unified command to oversee damage assessment and support for displaced residents, adding, "I will personally take charge of measures to support all affected communities."
A preliminary analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said a magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck near San José del Palmar in Chocó Department on the Pacific coast at about 7:34 a.m. local time (8:34 p.m. in Korea) that day.