The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 250 miles west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey and Colombia’s counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles. The quake also was felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama, though minimal damage was reported there.
Local officials confirmed that at least 40 people were killed in the department of Risaralda, where the hard-hit city of Pereira is located, and 27 people in the Valle del Cauca department, where Colombia's third-biggest city, Cali, is located. Two people also died in the city of Manizales.
At least three of those killed in Valle del Cauca were children, the governor said.
The quake left cities across the west of the country — Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales — ravaged. Residents and search teams picked through the rubble of collapsed buildings amid concerns by authorities of aftershocks. Colombia's interior minister said more than 20 municipalities across the country had been hit.
More than 6000 people died when a quake of similar magnitude hit Venezuela in June.
