6.1 Quake in Colombia: One Person Dead, Severe Material Damage

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale registered on Thursday in central Colombia left one person dead in Bogotá and severe material damage in the departments of Meta and Cundinamarca.

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The mayor of Bogotá Claudia López said that in the Colombian capital there were no serious affectations, however, a woman died in the middle of the tremor after jumping from the window of her apartment in a building located in the south of the city.

"We have a painful event, a woman in the Madelena neighborhood in Ciudad Bolivar, apparently out of panic she jumped from a tenth floor and died, it is the only serious incident we had," the mayor said calling in the population to remain calm.

López also asked the people of Bogotá that before returning to their homes or workplaces to check for damage to the facades or roofs and to report immediately to the authorities if they find cracks caused by the tremor.

The tweet reads, "Authorities inform that once analyzed the safety conditions at Pr 58+000, mobility is enabled only to evacuate the dammed area in the sector in the direction of Bogota - Villavicencio. The other checkpoints remain temporarily and preventively closed."

The rescue of seven people trapped in an elevator was reported as well in the capital. There were also failures in some traffic lights, while in the Elliptical Hall of the Congress of the Republic, a piece of its dome came off.

The governor of the department of Meta (epicenter of the tremor) Juan Guillermo Zuluaga, reported that preliminarily no fatalities or injuries have been registered, but there are damaged and destroyed houses in the area.

"The road infrastructure of the department has not been affected, but in the municipality of El Calvario we have 18 houses affected, six of them are totally destroyed and in a neighboring municipality of El Calvario called San Juanito we have the report of eight houses with serious damages," Zuluaga told local media.

The Colombian Aerospace Force had an aircraft available to monitor the epicenter zone, while on the ground the 29 mayors of the department of Meta are moving forward with the census of their municipalities to verify the state of the inhabitants, of the houses and of the access roads.

The tweet reads, "A powerful tremor shook Colombia at noon this Thursday, leaving its force felt in several regions of the country. The epicenter of this seismic phenomenon was located in El Calvario, Meta, and it is estimated that it had an initial magnitude of 6.1, according to the first reports issued by the Colombian Geological Service. Authorities, aware of the risk, urged the population to evacuate the areas where they were located, in order to safeguard their safety."

"We are going to be very attentive in monitoring, because we have very remote areas of the department with difficult communication. So this is only a preliminary report, and we will continue to expand any information that reaches us," said Zuluaga.

In Villavicencio, capital of the department of Meta, there were also reports of cracked buildings, such as some hospitals that operate in old buildings and had to evacuate their patients for fear of the collapse of the structure.

The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, recalled via Twitter that the epicenter of the tremor is located in the same area where a serious avalanche occurred last July, so the total closure of this road was ordered as a precaution.

"The area of the road from Bogotá to Villavicencio, where recently the loss of human lives was recorded by a dammed creek due to landslides, is today the epicenter of the tremor. Due to its vulnerability, it is under the preventive work of the UNGRD" (National Unit for Disaster Risk Management) the president said. 

The tweet reads, "A 5.1 magnitude tremor was felt last night in central Colombia, eight hours after the 6.1 magnitude tremor that shook the country at midday and left one person dead and slight material damage."

For his part, the governor of the department of Cundinamarca, Nicolás García, informed that in this area the earthquake caused several landslides and damage to some houses.

"We continue monitoring with the Departmental Unit of Risk Management the possible affectations on the occasion of the tremor that had as epicenter the municipality of El Calvario in the department of Meta," the governor said, noting that affectations were recorded "affectations in municipalities of the east of Cundinamarca, in Guayabetal landslides, as well as in the municipality of Chipaque and in the Guavio."