More than a hundred people have lost their lives this Monday due to a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale, whose epicenter has been located near the town of San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó, in the northwest of Colombia.
The president of the country, Abelardo de la Espriella, has confirmed the death of 111 people and has reported 87 injured, in a quake that has struck around nine departments.
The president has detailed that, for now, damage has been detected in at least 1,575 homes, of which 37 have been completely destroyed. 18 health centers, 52 schools, and 17 community centers have also been affected.
The damage report also includes 61 collapsed buildings, 18 roads with damage, and seven affected airports, six of which are out of service for commercial flights.
De la Espriella has announced that he will travel to Quibdó, the capital of the Chocó department, while the vice president, José Manuel Restrepo, and several ministers will travel to Pereira, in the department of Risaralda, and to Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca, with the aim of assessing the consequences of the earthquake on the ground.
The announcement was made at a press conference following a meeting with the National Disaster Management Committee, established during the day, in which the president declared the situation a "national disaster."
Hours earlier, the governor of Valle del Cauca, Dilian Francisca Toro, had reported the death of 27 people, including at least three minors, although she emphasized that this is a preliminary balance that does not include the capital, Cali.
The regional leader has also pointed out that in the town of El Águila a hospital has collapsed, where at least five people —three adults and two children— have been trapped, while in the municipality of El Cairo damage has been recorded in "about" 80% of the buildings.
For his part, the governor of Risaralda, Juan Diego Patiño, has raised the death toll to 40 solely in the capital, Pereira, and in two nearby municipalities, as a result of an earthquake that has impacted about nine departments of the country.
In the municipality of Manizales, in the department of Caldas, two fatalities have been counted so far, according to what its mayor, Jorge Eduardo Rojas, has explained in a video on social media, who has also lamented more than a dozen buildings partially or totally destroyed and more than 20 homes completely collapsed.
To these figures, four more deaths and 69 injured in the department of Chocó are added, according to the information disseminated on social media by its governor, Nubia Córdoba, who has not yet provided a balance of material damages.
The epicenter of the seismic movement, recorded around 7:34 a.m. (local time), has been located five kilometers east of San José del Palmar and has had a depth of 107 kilometers, according to the preliminary report from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).