A powerful earthquake struck Colombia, killing 20 people and leaving residents trapped in collapsed buildings, authorities said.
Eighteen people died in the town of Pereira, while others remained trapped after structures gave way, Mayor Mauricio Salazar told Caracol Radio.
Two more people were killed in Manizales, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said in an interview with Blu Radio.
Emergency medical teams were deployed as authorities assessed damage and searched for victims in cities where buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Watch: Building collapse in Colombia after earthquake
At least 20 buildings collapsed in Cali, trapping people inside, Mayor Alejandro Eder said.
Cali has asked rescue teams from Bogota and Medellin to join the emergency response, he added.
The earthquake caused injuries and extensive damage in a province along Colombia’s Pacific Coast and in Pereira. Governors said the tremor was felt in Bogota and as far away as Venezuela.
“We have just experienced a major earthquake in the department of Choco.
“We are concerned about aftershocks. Although the epicentre was near San Jose del Palmar, there are injuries and significant damage to buildings in the capital, Quibdo.
People are pulled from a collapsed building after an earthquake in Cali, Colombia
“We are already carrying out a damage assessment and will issue the first official report shortly,” Choco Governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi said on X.
Juan Diego Patino, governor of neighboring Risaralda province, told Blu Radio that some buildings in Pereira, the provincial capital, had suffered “serious damage”.
“What has just occurred is very severe. The images are truly shocking, with people injured and building facades collapsed,” he said.
The US tsunami warning system said no tsunami warning had been issued.
Colombia’s geological service and the US Geological Survey placed the earthquake at magnitude 7.4, with its epicenter 100km underground in western Colombia.
A map showing where the earthquake hit in Colombia
Operations were suspended at six small airports across western Colombia, the civil aeronautics agency said.
Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said it was coordinating with local authorities to determine the extent of any damage.
Bogota Mayor Carlos Galan said on X that the capital had not suffered major damage.
Reuters witnesses in Venezuela’s border state of Tachira and the central-western city of Barquisimeto said they felt the earthquake.
Venezuela was struck by twin devastating earthquakes in June that killed more than 6,000 people, most of them along the coast near the capital, Caracas.
