A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people, injuring 87 and damaging roughly 1,600 buildings across several major cities. The tremor, the strongest recorded in the country this century according to Colombia's Geological Service, levelled at least 61 structures and left an unknown number of residents trapped beneath rubble.
The epicentre lay near San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region roughly 400 kilometres west of Bogota. Shaking was felt across the western Andes in Cali, Pereira, Quibdo and Manizales, and reached neighbouring Ecuador and Panama. Twenty-one aftershocks followed the initial event.
Cities across the western Andes devastated
In Cali, the country's third-largest city, volunteers formed human chains to pass concrete slabs and debris from collapsed buildings. Álvaro López, a resident whose building was left in ruins, described watching the search for survivors beside a neighbouring structure that had completely pancaked. Local officials reported 380 damaged buildings in Cali alone, with people still trapped in several.
Further south in Pereira, the capital of the coffee-growing Risaralda region, at least 15 buildings collapsed. Video footage showed sections of the airport ceiling falling onto travellers taking shelter. Mayor Mauricio Salazar confirmed fears that residents remained inside the wreckage. In Manizales, one of the twin towers of the neo-Gothic cathedral crashed into the nave, prompting Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas to urge citizens to remain outdoors.
Airports in Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira suspended operations while authorities assessed structural damage. Phone signals failed across much of Quibdo, the Choco capital, leaving the full extent of casualties in the remote jungle region unclear. The town nearest the epicentre, San Jose del Palmar, sits on a mountain ridge accessible only by a single highway linking Cali and Pereira and has no airport.
Emergency response and international aid
President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was sworn in over the weekend, declared a national emergency to accelerate recovery funding and said he would visit the disaster zone. "We aren't going to leave people alone," he told reporters. "They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination."
The United States pledged $15.5 million for emergency shelter, food and response assistance. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele offered rescue teams, medical personnel and supplies. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum and Chile President José Antonio Kast also pledged support, with Kast noting his country's own experience with seismic disasters. Both El Salvador and Mexico were among the largest aid providers to Venezuela after back-to-back earthquakes there in late June killed more than 6,300 people.
The Colombian Pacific coast lies along the Ring of Fire, the belt of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean. The Choco region, one of Colombia's poorest, is largely accessible only by boat or plane, complicating damage assessments. The 1999 Armenia earthquake, magnitude 6.2, killed more than 1,100 people.
Digital missing-persons databases recorded more than 1,400 entries by Monday afternoon, mostly from Cali and Pereira. Families posted photographs of a young mother and her baby in Pereira and an 80-year-old woman in Cali whose building collapsed. The disaster marks the first major test for de la Espriella, a divisive figure who campaigned on an aggressive crackdown against criminal groups and is widely seen as an ally of former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Based on reporting by Global News.