Colombian Quake Kills at Least 200, Injures 900

At least 200 people were killed Monday when a powerful earthquake and strong aftershocks jolted Colombia’s coffee country, collapsing buildings and unleashing landslides, authorities said.

Officials feared that the death toll will rise as debris is cleared and communications restored. At least 900 people were reported injured.

Colombian television showed residents pulling rubble off buildings where victims, including children, were trapped, screaming for help. Rescuers tried to use their bare hands to open a path for them.

“Our city has ceased to be,” said Alvaro Patino, mayor of Armenia, where the afternoon quake claimed at least 130 lives. Perhaps half of Armenia was destroyed, estimated Health Minister Virgilio Galvez.

The tremor had a magnitude of 6.0, according to the National Seismological Institute.

The temblor was so powerful that it swayed tall buildings here in the capital, 100 miles east of the epicenter, and in the northwestern industrial city of Medellin. But the worst destruction was in the small, quaint cities of Colombia’s central mountain range.

“It is impossible to calculate the magnitude of the catastrophe,” Patino told a Colombian radio station. He called on residents to help one another survive the nation’s worst earthquake since a tremor 15 years ago in Popayan killed more than 300 people.

Rescue efforts were hampered by four strong aftershocks, including one registering 5.6 that occurred four hours after the main quake. Officials declared a 6 p.m. curfew to discourage looting, but they acknowledged that they had no place to shelter the thousands of homeless people who had gathered in town squares.

Firefighters and police struggled to control the fires in buildings, but in Armenia the police station itself was destroyed along with all telephone communications, a theater and a luxury hotel. Cinder-block shanties collapsed in hillside slums.

In Calarca, just outside Armenia, the city center was flattened and the hospital was left without power. Highways into the region were cut off by landslides, according to the Colombian Red Cross.

As darkness fell, most of the region was without light because electric power was cut to prevent fires from downed lines. Authorities warned residents not to drink tap water.

“It looks like the city has been bombed,” Gov. Carlos Arturo Lopez said of Pereira, the capital of his province, where a church fell. After a helicopter tour of the region, he reported that entire neighborhoods had been reduced to rubble.

TV pictures from Pereira showed demolished buildings, a taxi flattened by debris and the body of a woman trapped under rubble. Firefighters battled blazes, and smoke billowed from burning buildings.

Every building was razed in Ulloa, the town closest to the epicenter, according to early reports.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana canceled a trip to Europe to fly to the zone and survey the damage. The armed forces offered troops, including elite anti-guerrilla units, to aid in disaster relief.

“We don’t know the magnitude [of damage] yet, but all the organizations, including the president’s office, are working, and we are going to find the best and fastest way to get aid there,” Pastrana said.

While temblors are common in this region of the Andes, most are so far below the Earth’s surface that they cause no harm, according to geologists. However, this earthquake was less than 40 miles below ground, accounting for its destructive power, they said.