A powerful earthquake shook Bogota midday Thursday, causing a brief wind of panic in the streets of the Colombian capital, with a single death due to panic and without causing major damage.
The earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.1, took place at 12:04 p.m. (5:04 p.m. GMT), according to an urgent bulletin from the Colombian geological service published on the Twitter network, renamed X.
The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the locality of El Calvario, 40 km southeast of Bogota, and at a depth of 30 km, still according to the geological service.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 6.3.
Buildings shook, sirens went off and thousands of people, some in panic, immediately came out of the buildings to rush into the streets and call loved ones on their cellphones, AFP found.
Workers rushed down from a building under construction to seek refuge, amidst hundreds of other onlookers, in a crowded nearby park, and to the sound of evacuation alarms ringing in the city.
A second tremor took place about ten minutes later, again causing cries of fear and brief panic.
No damage to buildings was however visible in this northern part of Bogota.
“The only serious incident reported is the death of a woman apparently taken from a nervous breakdown who threw herself into the void from the tenth floor of an apartment building”, indicated on X the mayor Claudia Lopez. Firefighters confirmed the death of the victim.
According to Ms Lopez, there have simply been “people stuck in elevators and other minor incidents” of the same type.
The main road linking Bogota to the southeast of the country has been “temporarily” closed due to landslides at several points, according to the office of the governor of the department of Cundinamarca.
At least 35 aftershocks have been recorded, most of them low intensity but ranging up to 5.4 magnitude, according to the geological survey.
In a video broadcast live by the Colombian presidency, during a meeting attended by President Gustavo Petro in a large hotel in the city, the American ambassador Francisco Palmieri interrupted in the middle of his speech, s suddenly asking in English, looking worried and raising his finger: “an earthquake?”.
Before resuming, again with a smile on his lips, his intervention. The hotel was not finally evacuated, specifies the national press.
“The Civil Defense has verified that in the municipality of Calvario (department of Meta), the entire municipality has been evacuated, only the windows of houses and establishments have been affected”, indicated in a bulletin this same Civil Defense (UNGRD) .
Photos posted on social networks, relayed by the national press but not verified by AFP, showed in the affected areas broken windows on the ground and some collapsed brick walls.
Videos filmed on mobile phones, again relayed on the networks, showed the crowd rushing into the streets, the interior of a shaking living room, a lighting store with lamps clashing or the frightened staff of a studio of television shaken by the earthquake.
A small piece of the Congressional ceiling collapsed onto the Lower House bays.
“We had two seismic events: the first with an epicenter in El Calvario of magnitude 6.1. The second, also in Villavicencio, of magnitude 5.6 and of superficial origin. The latter was felt practically throughout the country Currently, possible structural damage in Villavicencio is being verified (…)”, added the UNGRD.
Earthquakes occur at very regular intervals in Colombia, but most often at great depth and without causing major damage.
Crossed by the Andes mountain range, with more than twenty volcanoes (three of which are active), the country is located at the crossroads of the Pacific Ring of Fire and the Andean volcanic belt.
In Bogota, as in all major cities in the country, evacuation drills for homes and other office buildings are regularly organized by the authorities.
08/18/2023 07:41:42 – Bogotá (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
