BOGOTA, Aug. 10 — A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday morning, killing at least 132 people, injuring more than 570, and leaving a trail of destruction across 32 cities in what the Colombian Geological Service called the country’s strongest earthquake of the 21st century.
Casualties and Damage The death toll rose rapidly throughout the day as rescue teams sifted through rubble. Pereira, the capital of Risaralda department in Colombia’s coffee-growing region, reported the heaviest losses with 60 confirmed deaths, followed by Cali with 15, Quibdo with eight, and Manizales with four. At least 86 buildings collapsed entirely, while 1,575 homes sustained structural damage. Seven airports — including those in Pereira, Manizales, Cali, Armenia, Cartago, Quibdo, and Buenaventura — suspended all commercial operations pending structural safety inspections.
Government Response Colombia’s newly inaugurated president, who took office just days before the quake, declared a national state of disaster and established a Unified Command Post to coordinate emergency response across affected regions. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble,” the president said in a national address. The declaration unlocks federal emergency funds and mobilizes military assets for relief operations.
Search and Rescue Efforts Footage from multiple cities showed dramatic scenes of collapse: a four-story building crumbled in Pereira, one of the neo-Gothic towers of Manizales’ landmark cathedral partially fell onto adjacent streets, and residential towers sustained visible structural damage. Firefighter Mauricio Andrade in Cali told Reuters his team had rescued two adult women and two children from one collapsed building and was preparing to extract more survivors. Residents formed human chains to help remove debris by hand as heavy equipment was dispatched to the hardest-hit areas.
Seismic Context The quake struck at 7:34 a.m. local time with an epicenter near San Jose del Palmar in Choco department, approximately 400 kilometers west of Bogota, at a depth of 96 kilometers according to the Colombian Geological Service (the USGS recorded 107 km). Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee noted that the earthquake’s powerful magnitude, inland location, and strike-slip motion likely amplified surface shaking despite the considerable depth. Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire. By late Monday, 21 aftershocks had been recorded, and authorities warned additional tremors were likely. The Chinese Embassy in Colombia activated its emergency response mechanism and reported no casualties among Chinese nationals as of Monday evening.
Historical Parallel Colombia’s coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, primarily around Armenia and Pereira. Monday’s quake evoked immediate comparisons to that tragedy, though early assessments suggest the deeper focal depth may have limited some surface damage relative to the 1999 event.