People live outside the Durango Clinic in Mexico City amid the COVID-19 epidemic.
Mexico City:
A powerful earthquake struck the coast of southern Mexico on Tuesday, with buildings shaken hundreds of miles away in Mexico City, causing people to flee their homes and hit the streets, triggering a tsunami warning.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties due to the earthquake, which was measured by the US Geological Survey at a magnitude of 7.4. It was concentrated on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca.
President Andrés Manuel López Obredor said there were no initial reports of damage but said he still awaits the report of Oaxaca, a mountainous state that is home to coffee plantations, beach resorts and Spanish colonial architecture .
Alberto Ibáñez, an photographer from Oaxaca City, told Reuters that the earthquake left a crack in an interior wall in his apartment and knocked books and utensils off the shelves.
“Everyone ran down the street, it was really strong,” Ibanez said.
Reuters witnesses in Mexico City saw no early signs of injuries or damage. The capital’s Ministry of Public Safety said a flyover revealed “there are no buildings.”
Earthquakes of greater than 7 magnitude are large earthquakes capable of extensive, heavy damage. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake in central Mexico in 2017 killed 355 people in the capital and surrounding states.
Tuesday’s earthquake issued a tsunami warning for a radius of 1,000 km (621 mi) off the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Central America, including Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
The USGS said that the epicenter of Tuesday’s earthquake was 69 km (43 mi) northeast of Pochutla town. It was very shallow, only 26 km (16 mi) below the surface of the Earth, which must have increased tremors.
Located at the crossroads of three tectonic plates, Mexico is one of the world’s most earthquake prone countries. The capital is considered particularly unsafe due to its location at the top of the ancient lake bed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and published from a syndicated feed.)
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