Bogotá.- A 5.1 magnitude tremor was felt this Thursday night in central Colombia, eight hours after the 6.1 tremor that shook the country at noon and left one person dead and slight material damage.
The new tremor occurred at 8:15 p.m. local time (01:15 GMT on Friday) and had as its epicenter the same region in the north of the department of Meta (center) where the midday tremor occurred, which was followed by an aftershock of magnitude 5.9 , according to the Colombian Geological Service.
The epicenter of this aftershock was located in the municipality of Restrepo, very close to Bogotá, and its depth was “superficial”, less than 30 kilometers.
The midday tremor, which was strongly felt in cities such as Bogotá, Villavicencio and Tunja, left a single victim, a woman who, seized with panic, jumped out of the window of an apartment located in the upper part of a building in the capital. Colombian woman and died when she hit the ground.
The mayoress of Bogotá, Claudia López, assured that in the city “none of the services, nor the buildings had major affectations, only minor ones.”
One of the damages occurred in the Elliptic Hall of the National Capitol, where a rose window that adorns the vault fell on the seat occupied by the conservative Juan Carlos Wills, but the chamber was unoccupied, so there was no damage to regret.
On the highway between Bogotá and Villavicencio, the capital of Meta, there was a preventive closure due to landslides, since a month ago, an avalanche in the municipality of Quetame killed about twenty homes and the lives of 26 people.
In El Calvario (Meta), the epicenter of the midday tremor, at least four houses suffered considerable damage from the quake, according to local authorities.
The Geological Service indicated that in the two hours after the main earthquake, more than 20 aftershocks were registered, all located in Meta, “with magnitudes ranging from 2.0 to 5.6, and with superficial depths.”
