Colombia hit by 7.4-magnitude earthquake, with injuries and damage reported

A powerful earthquake has shaken western Colombia and neighbouring Ecuador, prompting people to evacuate homes and buildings. The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) said the 7.34am quake had a 6.6 magnitude and a depth of 79 km, adding it was in contact with local authorities to verify potential damage. UNGRD and the US Geological Survey later revised the quake's magnitude up to 7.4. Injuries and significant damage was reported in the Pacific Colombian province of Choco. Following the quake, Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella said he had "directly assumed leadership of the emergency response in José del Palma". "I have requested from the director of the UNGRD a detailed report on the situation and the most urgent needs. I will also be personally in Pereira to accompany the affected people and verify the Government's response," he wrote on X. "You are not alone. The State is present and acting." The governor of Colombia's Choco province wrote on X that there were injuries and serious damage to buildings in the department's capital Quibdo. The US's Tsunami Warning System said there was no risk of a tsunami following the earthquake. The provincial governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi took to X to provide an update on what she described as "a major earthquake", warning local residents about aftershocks. "Although the epicentre was near San Jose del Palmar, there are injuries and significant damage to buildings in the capital, Quibdo," she said. The governor of neighbouring Risaralda province, Juan Diego Patino, told local Blu Radio there was "serious damage to some buildings" in Pereira, the provincial capital. "What has just occurred is very severe. The images are truly shocking, with people injured and building facades collapsed," he said.The temblor follows two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela in late June. Those earthquakes destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed more than 5,000 people. Wires/ABC