A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, triggering widespread building collapses, trapping residents under rubble and prompting evacuations across multiple cities, officials said. The quake left at least 24 people dead, with most fatalities reported in Pereira, according to Colombia’s presidential office. The disaster is also drawing an emergency response that includes a unified command center and a leader-focused effort to reach the hardest-hit regions. ABC News
Officials said the earthquake’s epicenter was located about 5 kilometers east of San José del Palmar, Colombia, based on measurements cited by the U.S. Geological Survey. Other reporting placed the quake’s center in San José del Palmar in the Choco region and described it as occurring at a depth of roughly 107 kilometers, emphasizing that the tremor’s energy traveled through a large swath of the country. CBC News
The shaking hit during daylight hours, and the immediate aftermath was marked by images and accounts of damaged structures in several departments. In Cali—home to roughly two million people—local leaders reported severe impacts. The mayor said at least 20 buildings collapsed in the city, and that people were trapped inside. ABC News
City officials continued rescue work in specific locations where residents remained buried. A rescue effort was reported underway in at least one building where officials said at least 15 people were trapped. The situation underscored how quickly the quake turned ordinary residential and small commercial areas into sites of emergency search operations, with responders working to locate survivors while keeping pace with the risks posed by weakened structures. ABC News
Beyond Cali, the death toll concentrated in Pereira, one of Colombia’s major urban centers in the affected zone. The presidential office said that most fatalities came from Pereira, where the quake’s effects were described as particularly severe. In addition, officials reported the deaths of three children in the Valle del Cauca department, whose capital is Cali—reinforcing the breadth of the damage in the region and the human toll beyond official estimates that may still change as more information is verified. ABC News
Reports also pointed to deadly outcomes in other cities. In Manizales, footage described a prominent collapse at the neo-Gothic cathedral, where one of the towers fell onto the nave. The disaster’s reach extended beyond the immediate epicenter, and officials later confirmed deaths in the city, indicating that the quake’s impact was not limited to the most densely reported collapse zones. CBC News
Western Colombia appeared to bear the brunt of the devastation, according to multiple accounts. In the department of Chocó, the regional capital Quibdó was described by its governor as having injuries and serious building damage, though she provided no detailed breakdown in her initial statement. The quake was also reported to have been felt in neighboring Ecuador and beyond, with residents evacuating homes and buildings as the shaking increased uncertainty and risk. The Guardian
In terms of geographic distribution, officials indicated that not all major population centers were experiencing structural collapses. The reporting from Colombia’s response channels said there were no reports of collapsed buildings in the capital, Bogota, suggesting that the strongest structural impacts were concentrated in the western corridor where buildings and infrastructure may have been more vulnerable to the quake’s intensity and local conditions. ABC News
President Abelardo de la Espriella—who had been inaugurated only days earlier—spoke via a video posted to social media and said he was heading to Bogota to focus on addressing the emergency facing the country. He also announced that he had convened a unified command post to coordinate responses in the affected areas, including the area known as the Coffee-Growers’ Axis. Other reporting described plans to supervise recovery efforts personally and to establish an emergency center in San José del Palmar, reflecting an emphasis on rapid on-the-ground coordination near the quake’s epicenter. CBC News
As rescue teams worked amid collapsed structures, the focus shifted to identifying survivors and assessing damage patterns across neighborhoods. With reports of dozens of deaths and multiple sites where people were trapped, officials faced the operational challenge of reaching victims quickly while dealing with ongoing hazards such as unstable buildings and blocked access routes. The ongoing effort in Cali—where rescuers were extracting victims from at least one building with more than a dozen people trapped—illustrated the intensity of the immediate humanitarian response. ABC News
While the initial death toll of at least 24 is already described as rising, authorities stressed that casualty figures can shift as information is collected and verified across multiple cities and departments. The earthquake’s impacts were repeatedly characterized as concentrated in the western parts of the country, including Pereira, Cali and areas of Chocó, and the response effort appears designed to extend beyond immediate rescues into longer-term stabilization and recovery. For now, emergency services remain focused on the most urgent tasks: locating trapped residents, preventing secondary injuries, and coordinating relief operations across a region still assessing the full scope of damage.
SHOP AMAZON BEST SELLERS, CLICK TO BUY FROM AMAZON.
SHOP AMAZON BEST SELLERS, CLICK TO BUY FROM AMAZON.
