The Servicio Geológico Colombiano reported a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Colombia on Sunday, approximately 56 miles east of Bogota.
The SGC’s database for tracking such incidents detected the earthquake around 8:08 a.m. local time near the city of Paratebueno, describing it as shallow in depth.
The service stated that it has received around 5,000 reports of persons who felt the earthquake. Data suggest that at least two aftershocks had magnitudes greater than four.
During a news conference Sunday, Carlos Carrillo, the director of Colombia’s national disaster risk office, stated that a major highway in the area had sustained damage.
“In the inspection area of Santa Cecilia and the village of La Europa, as well as in Medina, the main church has been affected, including collapsed walls,” he said.
“So far, two people have been reported injured in that municipality. Damage has occurred to walls and facades of churches and homes, and there may also be damage to bridges.”
He later clarified that four people total have so far been reported injured, two in Paratebueno and two in Medina. They are all said to have minor injuries.
Carrillo said authorities were seeking to verify the impacts of the earthquake on a health center in the town of Fómeque and on a Catholic church in the town of Une in the Andes. Damage to homes were also reported in the towns of Tocaima and Caldas.
The U.S. Geological Survey also recorded the earthquake, describing it as a 6.3-magnitude tremor.
