Colombia Declares National Emergency After Powerful 7.4 Magnitude Earthquake

Colombia has declared a national emergency after a powerful earthquake struck in the country's west, killing at least 132 people and collapsing buildings, trapping people under the rubble, in what authorities called the country's strongest earthquake of the century.

The Colombian geological service and its American counterpart the US Geological Survey (USGS) put the magnitude at 7.4, with an epicentre 100km underground. Tremors were also felt in Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela.

The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) said it had received reports from nine departments and all 32 departmental capitals where the quake was felt, triggering evacuations and initial reports of damage.

The USGS said "significant casualties and damage are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread" as a result of the quake.

The death toll has risen to 132 and 570 people have been injured, according to the latest update from the Colombian Association of Capital Cities on Monday, local time.

The quake struck just days after Mr de la Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis shortly after devastating twin earthquakes in neighbouring Venezuela in June.

In a national address around 1pm local time he declared a state of emergency.

"The national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed," he said.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was making urgent enquiries with local authorities to determine whether any Australians have been impacted.

"We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life and damage in Colombia resulting from the earthquake and our heartfelt condolences are with those affected by this terrible event," a spokesperson for the department said.

Mr de la Espriella visited Quibdo, the capital of coastal Choco province, where he promised rent subsidies for those who have lost homes, and then travelled to Cali, western Colombia's largest city.

Though he had been expected to give an updated national death toll on Monday evening, Mr de La Espriella offered only figures for Valle del Cauca province, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there.

Australian Lisa Richards, who has lived in Cali for nearly a decade, described the moment the earthquake struck.

"The wall was bending, it was hard to walk actually because you felt very disorientated. It was really strong," she told the ABC's AM program.

Ms Richards said many residents had been left without essential services, like power and water, but were doing whatever they could to help each other in the aftermath.

"People are rushing to where the collapsed buildings were because obviously they're trying to dig people out of the rubble," she said.

"People are posting on Instagram, 'please come and help, bring gloves, bring face masks, bring water'. Everyone's hands [are] on deck."

At least six Colombian airports suspended operations.

Residents in San Jose del Palmar, near the quake's epicentre, were also being warned to be on alert for aftershocks.

As night fell, rescue workers and volunteers with headlamps hurried to find people still trapped under rubble.

Authorities in Cali, Armenia and Manizales announced curfews, with Cali's mayor saying threats of looting had forced him to deploy police and military personnel to the streets.

Mr de la Espriella promised 1,000 additional security personnel for the city.

Cali authorities said the Petronio Alvarez festival, an annual celebration of Pacific music which was due to start on Wednesday, has been postponed.

Video broadcast by Caracol Television showed a group of people pulling a small baby covered in dust from under a pile of rubble. Caracol reported the six-month-old girl and her mother were rescued from under a five-story building in Cali.

Video from Cali also showed rescue workers rappelling people out from the windows of a local hospital.

In the hard-hit city of Pereira, rescue workers told local television they were in contact with a young boy trapped under a bakery, and crane operators were working to remove badly damaged parts of buildings.

A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during the quake, according to Reuters-verified video, while footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city's landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.

Reuters video showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shovelling debris by hand and loading rubble into trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.

Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building. As he spoke to Reuters, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.

"They are alive," he said. "We are making space so we can free them and get them out."

Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident and rescue volunteer, said her group had helped seven people out of a fallen building, but there were still four people and a dog trapped underneath.

"A moment ago there was scratching, but now we can't hear anything, we still have faith that the dog is alive and we can get these people out," she said. "The more people lending a hand the better."

Saul Paz, 69, a resident of a Cali residential complex that partially collapsed, told Reuters he had been in the dining room with his son and wife when the shaking began.

"I think if it had lasted five seconds more there would be nothing left," he said. "There are people who went to bed last night with a house and a car and today they won't have anything."

Colombia's civil aviation authority suspended operations at several airports in the region, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, while engineers carried out structural inspections.

Injuries and significant damage were reported in the Pacific Colombian province of Choco, while the mayor of the nearby city of Cali, Alejandro Eder, reported at least 20 buildings had collapsed from the quake, trapping people inside.

"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."

Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city from his home in hills of the city as buildings collapsed. Residents in the city and rescue workers were searching the rubble for survivors.

"I've never lived through such a powerful earthquake."

Following the quake, Mr de la Espriella said he had "directly assumed leadership of the emergency response in José del Palma".

"I have requested from the director of the UNGRD a detailed report on the situation and the most urgent needs. I will also be personally in Pereira to accompany the affected people and verify the Government's response," he wrote on X.

"You are not alone. The State is present and acting."

The US's Tsunami Warning System said there was no risk of a tsunami following the earthquake.

The provincial governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi took to X to provide an update on what she described as "a major earthquake", warning local residents about aftershocks.

"Although the epicentre was near San Jose del Palmar, there are injuries and significant damage to buildings in the capital, Quibdo," she said.

Risaralda province Governor Juan Diego Patino told Blu Radio there was "serious damage to some buildings" in Pereira, the provincial capital.

The temblor 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.

Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and records thousands of mostly minor earthquakes each month.

Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake's powerful magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.

"This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn't cause as much shaking. At this magnitude, it did actually cause a lot of shaking," she said.

The Colombian Geological Service said 21 aftershocks had been recorded by late Monday and warned that additional tremors were likely.

Colombia's coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly around Armenia and Pereira.