VIDEO: Colombia scrambles to find survivors as quake kills 132
- Last updated: August 11, 2026 | 12:54
Colombian volunteers and rescuers cleared rubble with their bare hands and buckets to search for survivors early on Tuesday after the country's strongest earthquake in a decade killed at least 132 people and smashed dozens of buildings.
The 7.4-magnitude quake struck cities across Colombia's western region shortly after 7:30 am (1230 GMT), sending panicked residents onto the streets, AFP journalists saw.
The quake killed 132 people and injured more than 570 as of Monday afternoon, according to the Colombian Association of Capital Cities, a group coordinating major cities across the country.
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella -- just three days after being sworn into the job -- declared a state of emergency and vowed a concerted rescue effort.
De la Espriella said earlier the death toll was 111.
The city of Pereira, which was among those hit hardest, was mostly plunged into darkness amid power outages on Monday night as volunteers probed for signs of life under collapsed buildings.
"We're without power. This seems honestly like a zombie city," resident Juan David Gaitan told the media.
Tattoo artist Andres Hernandez said he was worried about his family and friends, adding that he would stay awake because structures around him were "on the verge of collapsing."
Hernandez recalled being asleep at home when the quake happened and rushing into the street for safety, as the quake devastated the city in the heart of Colombia's coffee-growing region.
"It was a movie scene, because I saw the poles, the cables, everything moving. I'm worried about my family, my friends," he said.
There were scenes of destruction in several cities, with furniture and fabrics sandwiched between concrete, walls and floors tossed into irregular angles, and cabling strewn across roads.
In Manizales, the quake crumpled a tower of the city's beloved neo-Gothic cathedral.
In Quibdo, the capital of Colombia's Choco department, local official Jenny Rivas said public services and communications "have been virtually shut down."
"People ran out naked, people jumped from the second floor of their homes," Quibdo resident and law student Wilmer Cuesta recalled.
Dentist Julian Pena said he "ran outside carrying nothing" after feeling very strong shaking and found hundreds doing the same.
"People were praying in the street. It was overwhelming," he told the media.
"There are many buildings with gaps, with cracks. There are others that have completely collapsed."
Overnight searches
The quake was felt across Colombia, including the capital Bogota, where crowds rushed out into the street in their pyjamas.
At a depth of 110 kilometres (68 miles), the quake was also felt in neighbouring Ecuador and Panama.
Experts at the US Geological Survey said the quake was likely caused by movement along a deep fault within the Nazca tectonic plate.
Smaller earthquakes are not uncommon in Colombia, which is crisscrossed by three ranges of the Andean mountains. However, it is landslides which have historically been the deadliest natural disasters in the country, with the Armero disaster in 1985 killing some 25,000 people. Cities in the country's coffee region, including Armenia and Pereira, suffered a devastating 6.2 magnitude quake in 1999, which killed more than 1,000 people. De La Espriella, a right-wing politician who has never before held elected office, said in a video filmed while flying to Bogota that he was suspending his planned activities to lead emergency coordination efforts out of the capital.
His government declared a state of emergency to coordinate rescue efforts, Caracol reported.
Colombia's civil aviation authority said flights were suspended at airports in Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura while inspectors checked for structural damage.
The U.S. tsunami warning system said there was no tsunami threat after the quake, which occurred at 7:34 local time (1234 GMT) and was felt in nine departments and all 32 departmental capitals.
Reuters witnesses in the Venezuelan border state of Tachira and central-western city of Barquisimeto reported the quake had been felt there. Venezuela was hit by twin earthquakes in June, which killed more than 6,000 people, mostly on the coast near the capital, Caracas.
The quake left cities across the west of the country — Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales — ravaged, and residents picking through the rubble of collapsed buildings amid concerns by authorities of aftershocks.
Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Colombia's third-biggest city, Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city from his home in hills of the city as buildings collapsed.
Residents in the city and rescue workers were searching the rubble for survivors.
"My entire house shook," he said. "I've never lived through such a powerful earthquake."
Colombia's Geological Service said that it had been "the highest magnitude earthquake registered in Colombia in the last decade" and that it had been followed by two 2.8 and 4.8 magnitude aftershocks.
Authorities also reported that flights were suspended in the airports of Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago y Buenaventura and Pereira.
In Pereira, photos and videos published by local media showed pieces of the airport ceiling falling down on travelers taking shelter and screaming, and people running through rubble in a panic. Pereira's mayor, Mauricio Salazar, told a local radio station that at least 18 people had died and that many more were trapped under "a massive quantity of collapsed buildings."
Agencies