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At least 111 dead after 7.4-magnitude quake rocks Colombia; residents trapped in rubble
The 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of 107 kilometres, damaging buildings across several cities and leaving people trapped beneath the rubble
- PUBLISHED: Mon 10 Aug 2026, 9:09 PM UPDATED: Tue 11 Aug 2026, 12:22 AM
The death toll in Monday morning's earthquake in Colombia has hit 111, President Abelardo De La Espriella said in a national address.
The leader added that 87 people had been injured with dozens of buildings downed.
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The quake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighbouring Venezuela in June.
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The 7.4 magnitude quake, according to the US Geological Survey, struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles) near San José del Palmar, in Chocó, a sparsely populated province on Colombia's Pacific Coast, but was felt in major cities nationwide. "Significant casualties and damage are likely, and the disaster is potentially widespread," the agency warned.
The highest reported death toll was in the western province of Risaralda in Colombia's coffee-growing region, where Governor Juan Diego Patino, speaking by phone to Caracol Television, reported 42 fatalities.
In the province's capital of Pereira, social media images showed a building with a cracked facade crash to the ground, sending up a dark cloud of dust and debris as onlookers on the street darted away.
The impact also toppled one of the towers atop a Gothic-style cathedral in Manizales and forced nurses in Cali to wheel patients outside in hospital beds, social media and television images showed.