A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people, injuring dozens, and flattening infrastructure while frantic rescue operations got underway to pull survivors from the rubble.
Search teams and local volunteers formed human chains in Cali—the nation’s third-largest city—to clear heavy concrete debris by hand in a desperate attempt to reach trapped residents.
“Our building has basically been left in ruins, and the building next to ours? Completely collapsed,” said resident Álvaro López.
The epicenter was pinpointed near San Jose del Palmar, a remote town in the dense jungles of the Chocó region, approximately 250 miles west of Bogotá. The violent shaking was felt as far away as Ecuador and Panama, inflicting severe damage across major western hubs, including Pereira, Quibdó, and Manizales.
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella declared a state of emergency to expedite disaster relief funds, reporting at least 87 injuries and damage to around 1,600 structures, with 61 completely destroyed.
“We aren’t going to leave people alone. They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination,” President de la Espriella stated.
Confirmed deaths include 40 in Risaralda, 27 in Valle del Cauca, nine in Chocó, two in Caldas, and one in Antioquia, with authorities still verifying the locations of the remaining 32 casualties. Search and recovery efforts are expected to face significant logistical hurdles in Chocó, an impoverished Pacific coastal area accessible primarily by air or boat.
The Colombian Geological Service confirmed the tremor as the strongest recorded in the country this century.
It comes just weeks after two devastating earthquakes struck neighboring Venezuela, leaving a anxious public to scour rising online databases that already list over 2,000 missing persons.