2023-08-18 18:32:36
A powerful earthquake shook Bogota (Colombia) on Thursday, causing a brief wind of panic in the streets of the capital. The earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 took place around 12:04 p.m. (local time), according to an urgent bulletin from the Colombian geological service.
The epicenter of the earthquake was in the locality of El Calvario, 40 km southeast of Bogota, at a depth of 30 km. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) for its part reported a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. The earthquake did not cause major damage and only one victim, due to panic, is to be deplored.
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A single victim
During the earthquake, buildings shook and sirens went off. Thousands of people immediately came out of the buildings and rushed to the streets calling for their relatives. Workers left the site of a building under construction and rushed into a park, already crowded, where the inhabitants took refuge.
A second tremor took place about ten minutes later, again causing a brief panic. However, no damage to the buildings was visible. “The only serious incident reported is the death of a woman apparently taken from a nervous breakdown who threw herself into the void from the 10th floor of a building,” said Claudia Lopez, mayor of Bogota.
Regular and harmless earthquakes in the country
The main road linking Bogota to the southeast of the country has been “temporarily” closed due to several landslides. At least 35 aftershocks have been recorded, some not very intense but sometimes ranging up to 5.4 magnitude, according to the geological service.
In the municipality of Calvario, the entire population was evacuated but only the windows of the buildings were affected. Photos posted on social networks, relayed by the national press, show in the affected areas broken windows on the ground and some collapsed brick walls. A small piece of the Congress ceiling also collapsed.
Earthquakes occur regularly in Colombia, but often very deeply and without causing major damage. Crossed by the Andes and counting more than twenty volcanoes, the country is at the crossroads of the Pacific ring of fire and the Andean volcanic belt.
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