At least 111 killed as strongest quake this century strikes western Colombia
By Luis Jaime Acosta, Julia Symmes Cobb and Nelson Bocanegra
BOGOTA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - At least 111 people were killed when a powerful earthquake shook western Colombia on Monday, toppling buildings in several cities, damaging hospitals and infrastructure and leaving rescuers digging through debris by hand in what authorities called the country's strongest earthquake of the century.
The 7.4-magnitude quake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, forcing his new administration to confront a major national emergency almost immediately. Declaring a state of emergency around 1 p.m. local time, De La Espriella said all government capabilities were being deployed.
"The national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed," he said in a national address. "The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble."
De La Espriella said preliminary reports showed 111 dead and 87 injured, along with dozens of collapsed buildings and damaged homes. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake at magnitude 7.4, with a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia's geological service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.
In Choco, near the epicenter, reports were slowed by communications outages, and some areas still had no cellphone service hours after the quake. Governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba said 12 people had been killed and 84 injured in the largely rural department.
The heaviest casualties appeared concentrated in Risaralda, part of Colombia's coffee-growing region. Pereira, the department's capital, suffered extensive damage, with rescue workers continuing to search collapsed buildings for survivors.
BUILDINGS CRUMBLE, AIRPORTS FORCED TO CLOSE
A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during the quake, according to Reuters-verified video. Footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city's landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.
Reuters footage showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveling debris by hand and loading rubble into trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.
Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building. As he spoke to Reuters, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.
"They are alive," he said. "We are making space so we can free them and get them out."
Juan Carlos Osorio told Caracol Television that the collapse of one building "sounded like a bomb," as he helped remove debris from a collapsed structure in Cali.
"All of us neighbors are working together, forming human chains. We need heavy equipment. There are many people trapped," he said.
Colombia's civil aviation authority suspended operations at several airports in the west, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, while engineers carried out structural inspections.
RING OF FIRE
Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and records thousands of mostly minor earthquakes each month. Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake's magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.
"This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn't cause as much shaking. At this magnitude, it did actually cause a lot of shaking," she said.
The Colombian Geological Service said 21 aftershocks had been recorded by late Monday and warned that additional tremors were likely.
Colombia's coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly around Armenia and Pereira. Monday's damage appeared concentrated in the same area, and with contact still being restored to cut-off communities, the toll was expected to rise.
For De La Espriella, in office only days, the quake was an abrupt introduction to crisis management. With aftershocks still possible and several towns difficult to reach, the focus is likely to remain on rescue and damage assessment for the next few days.
Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Luis Jaime Acosta, Julia Symmes Cobb and Fabiola Aramburo; Additional reporting by Marco Trujillo in Cali and Sarah Morland in Mexico City; Writing by Kylie Madry and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Paul Simao and Matthew Lewis