Powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake hits western Colombia, killing at least 111

A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people and injuring dozens more in what authorities have confirmed is the country’s strongest earthquake of the 21st century.

The massive tremor struck at a depth of 107 kilometres, with its epicentre located near Chocó. Despite occurring deep beneath the Earth’s crust, the intense seismic shock waves triggered widespread destruction across densely populated urban valleys throughout western Colombia and the primary coffee-growing regions.

In Pereira, a four-story building collapsed into rubble, while video footage from Manizales captured the catastrophic collapse of one of the side towers of the city’s historic neo-Gothic cathedral. Severe building collapses and casualties were also reported in Cali, where local residents formed human chains alongside emergency responders to shovel away fallen concrete and pull survivors from trapped spaces.

Thrusting the administration into its first major crisis just days after his inauguration, President Abelardo De La Espriella declared a national state of emergency. In a live television address, De La Espriella announced that all available state and military resources were being deployed to western Colombia, confirming that the national government’s immediate priority remains the location and rescue of victims trapped beneath collapsed structures.

Severe regional communications outages initially delayed casualty reporting from rural zones near the epicentre in Chocó, where Governor Nubia Carolina Córdoba confirmed at least 12 fatalities and scores of injuries. Meanwhile, Colombia’s civil aviation authority halted flight operations across key regional airports, including facilities in Pereira, Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago, and Buenaventura, while structural engineers assess airfield and terminal safety.

The Colombian Geological Service recorded over 20 aftershocks following the initial quake and warned that additional tremors remain likely. Sitting directly along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, western Colombia previously suffered a devastating magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that claimed more than 1,000 lives across the same region.