🔴 Live: At least 47 killed after powerful quake rattles Colombia
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By: FRANCE 24 Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, on August 10, 2026. © Santiago Saldarriaga, AP At least 69 people have been killed in a major 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Monday, damaging buildings, trapping residents under debris and prompting evacuations in the capital, Bogota. The tremor was felt in other parts of Latin America, including Ecuador and Panama. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.
At least 69 people have been killed after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Colombia and other Latin American countries on Monday, causing damage and injuries and building evacuations in the capital Bogota.
Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Patients are evacuated outside a hospital after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Small earthquakes, known as “temblores”, are common in central and western Colombia, but those above 6.0 magnitude are rare. In 1999, a 6.2 magnitude quake near the city of Armenia, killed more than 1,100 people.
The quake left cities across the west of the country — Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales — ravaged. A mix of residents and search teams picked through the rubble of collapsed buildings amid concerns by authorities of aftershocks. Colombia's interior minister said more than 20 municipalities across the country had been hit.
Local officials confirmed that at least 18 people had been killed in the city of Pereira, two in the city of Manizales, and 27 people in the Valle de Cauca department, where Colombia's third-biggest city, Cali, is located.
The quake trapped residents under debris, leaving more injured and forcing people to evacuate their homes as far as the capital of Bogotá.
The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 250 miles (400 kilometres) west of Bogota, the US Geological Survey and Colombia’s counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles (107 kilometres). The quake also was felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama, though minimal damage was reported there.
At least 47 dead and more trapped below buildings after powerful earthquake shakes Colombia.
Welcome to our liveblog on the devastating earthquake in Colombia.
In the town of Pereira, 18 people were killed and others trapped in buildings that had collapsed, Mayor Mauricio Salazar told Caracol Radio.
"The situation is critical," Salazar told Caracol Radio after the quake centred in neighbouring Choco province.
The Colombian geological service put the magnitude of the quake at 6.6 while its American counterpart USGS put it at 7.4, with an epicenter 100km (62 miles) underground in the west of Colombia.
It was felt in Ecuador and as far away as Panama to the north, and prompted building evacuations in Bogota, AFP reporters saw.
The governor of Colombia's Choco province wrote on X that there were injuries and serious damage to buildings in the department's capital Quibdo.
The mayor of Cali, Colombia's third largest city, also reported "major damage".
News outlets aired footage of some buildings with their facades ripped off by the quake.
In Bogota some people ran out into the street in their pajamas as emergency sirens rang out, AFP reporters saw.
Twin earthquakes in Venezuela of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 on June 24 killed more than 6,000 people and caused devastating property damage.
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