Powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes Panama and triggers panic in capital

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday, damaging buildings and sending thousands into the streets, but the country appeared to escape widespread destruction or deaths.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake hit at a depth of 12.6km (7.8 miles), with an epicenter in a sparsely populated area about 200km (124 miles) from the capital, Panama City. It lasted about a minute.

In Panama City, there were scenes of panic as people rushed to evacuate from the city’s emblematic skyscrapers.

“I was scared because the shaking was very strong and prolonged. Heavy objects like dressers, the bed, and all the kitchen items were shaking,” Salomon Andion, 46, told Agence France-Presse after evacuating his 15-storey building.

A video widely shared on social media showed water falling from the rooftop pool of a building over 20 storeys tall. Another showed a bridge over the Panama canal shaking violently but remaining upright as vehicles travelled across it.

“We are facing a major disaster,” President Jose Raul Mulino said, adding that some roads had “completely collapsed”.

Juana Alveo, a 38-year-old cashier at a store in the city of Penonome in central Cocle province, said: “It was horrible, like nothing we ever experienced. My daughter was trapped in school.”

In the following hours, even as more than 40 aftershocks rattled the isthmus nation, the Panama canal and Cobre Panama copper mine reported normal operations and the Tocumen international airport lifted a suspension on flights.

Office workers in the upmarket business hub of downtown Panama City fretted about how to get home in the snarl of traffic.

Juan Sanchez, a 37-year-old economy ministry employee, waited for a bus he said he doubted would arrive. “They evacuated all of these buildings. Everyone is outside. Now the problem is, how do we get home?”

An exposure report by the USGS estimated about 43,000 Panamanians lived in areas with at least severe exposure to the quake.

In Panama City, Nestor Luque, director of the national geosciences institute, said he counted 40 seconds of vibrations, although other areas may have felt even longer tremors.

Strong earthquakes are not common in Panama, and some elderly residents were in tears as they evacuated into the streets.

The USGS estimated economic losses could amount to between 1% and 10% of Panama’s gross domestic product. Electricity provider Naturgy reported power outages in six provinces.

Panama was due to hold a national evacuation drill on Monday next week to test the country’s emergency response.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on social media that he was “closely monitoring reports” of the earthquake and the US was ready to help, if needed.