7.7-magnitude quake rocks Panama, triggers tsunami warning

PENONOME: A magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked Panama on Friday, causing panic in the high-rise capital and bringing down buildings in the centre of the country, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The shallow tremor was felt across the Central American nation of around 4.5 million people, according to the National Civil Protection System, and lasted about a minute.

In Panama City, about 200km from the epicentre, people rushed to evacuate skyscrapers in scenes of panic.

A video widely shared on social media, which AFP could not verify, showed water spilling from a pool at the top of a building more than 20 storeys tall.

Another showed a bridge over the Panama Canal shaking violently but remaining upright as vehicles travelled across it.

"It was horrible, like nothing we ever experienced. My daughter was trapped in school. Thank God we are okay," Juana Alveo, a 38-year-old cashier at a store in the central city of Penonome, told AFP.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 1756 GMT, with an epicentre 10km from the small town of Pitaloza Arriba in south-central Panama.

"I'm in shock right now and haven't been able to contact my family," Luis Poveda, a factory worker in Santiago de Veraguas, another city in central Panama, told AFP.

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The quake triggered a tsunami warning for Panama and warnings of smaller but dangerous waves along the coasts of other countries in Latin America and the South Pacific.

But the Panama Canal Authority said shipping through the channel, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, was unaffected and operating "as normal".

The damage appeared to be concentrated in the central regions of Herrera, Azuero, Veraguas and Los Santos.

"We all ran out of the building, the power lines were swaying, and everyone was outside," Arnulfo Santos, a worker at a flour mill in Santiago de Veraguas, told AFP.

Panama City's international airport, a major hub for the region, was temporarily closed.

Several flights were diverted to other airports as a precaution, according to the Civil Aeronautics Authority.

Big aftershocks

Earthquakes are rare in Panama and usually occur in the western province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica.

Images shared by local media showed that part of a hotel had collapsed in the town of Penonome, 150km south-west of Panama City.

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A church in Penonome was also seriously damaged, and other buildings showed cracks, according to local reports.

A road in Veraguas province had cracks, according to images released by the local press.

More than a dozen large aftershocks, one above magnitude 6.0, were recorded by the local geosciences institute.

Writing on X, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino called for calm.

"What happened should not be used to generate alarms and disorder," he said, adding that he had called for a report on the damage.

The Education Ministry announced the suspension of classes in schools nationwide.

The Panamanian quake was at least the fourth earthquake this year in Latin America to exceed magnitude 7.0, following back-to-back devastating earthquakes in Venezuela's Guaira region in June and a powerful earthquake in western Colombia in August.