BOGOTA — Rescue teams in western Colombia worked through a second day on Tuesday searching collapsed buildings for survivors after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake killed at least 164 people, with authorities warning the toll could rise.
The earthquake struck the country’s coffee-growing region early Monday, reducing buildings to rubble in cities including Cali and Pereira and damaging a historic cathedral in Manizales, according to officials and Reuters-verified footage.
Emergency workers, backed by police, soldiers and volunteers, worked through the night using heavy machinery and, in some cases, their hands to search for people trapped beneath debris.
Cali was among the hardest-hit areas, with at least 85 deaths reported there. Several upper floors of a hospital collapsed, leaving some patients trapped and forcing hundreds of others to receive treatment outside, hospital director Irne Torres Castro told local television.
Authorities in Pereira reported 66 deaths, while 13 people were killed in the Choco province near the earthquake’s epicenter.
President Abelardo De La Espriella said security forces would be deployed in Cali after reports of looting, while Cali and Pereira imposed nighttime curfews.
The earthquake was the most powerful to hit Colombia in decades, according to the Reuters report. Emergency authorities continued searching damaged structures for survivors as the full extent of casualties and destruction remained under assessment.
