The tremor, which has not caused fatalities, was felt in the country’s capital, where citizens took to the streets
An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 with an epicenter in the state of Veracruz shook eastern and central Mexico on Thursday, being perceived very slightly in the capital, according to the National Seismological Service (SSN). The epicenter was located 14 kilometers north of the town of Isla.
The earthquake took place at 8:40 local time (15:40 peninsular time in Spain) and activated the seismic alert for the capital and much of the country, which led thousands of people to temporarily evacuate the buildings. No material damage has been reported at this time.
“There is an earthquake. Waiting for more information from the national seismological. Emergency protocols are activated. So far no damage. We continue to report,” the head of the Mexico City government, Claudia Sheinbaum, reported on Twitter. Subsequently, Sheinbaum -accompanied by the Secretary of Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez- reported in a video that “so far there is no damage” in the capital and indicated that various buildings were evacuated in accordance with protocol.
The seismic alert forced the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to temporarily cancel his daily conference at the National Palace. “Fortunately, no serious damage from the earthquake is being reported at the moment,” said the president when resuming the press conference.
One of the most recent earthquakes was the one on September 7, which reached magnitude 7.1 and with an epicenter very close to Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, where it caused material damage. While in mid-2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, another 7.4-magnitude earthquake left a dozen dead and twenty injured in the southern state of Oaxaca.
In 2017, 471 people died in Mexico due to three earthquakes, on September 7, 19 and 23, in the greatest natural tragedy in Mexico since the 1985 earthquake, which left thousands dead in the country’s capital. The earthquake of magnitude 8.2 with epicenter in Chiapas on September 7 left 98 fatalities; 78 of them in Oaxaca, 16 in Chiapas and four in Tabasco. The one on September 19, of magnitude 7.1 and with an epicenter between Puebla and Morelos, left 369 dead, 228 of them in Mexico City. Another four people lost their lives on September 23, when a 6.1 earthquake in southern Mexico triggered the seismic alert in the capital.
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