An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale jolted southwestern Mexico Monday, the same day the country commemorated the anniversary of two other earthquakes that struck there on that date in 1985 and 2017. The quake struck at 1:05 p.m., less than an hour after the city performed its annual earthquake drill.
Nearly 700 aftershocks were recorded between when the earthquake hit and the following day.
On Tuesday, EjeCentral reported that the previous day’s earthquake had killed two people. It prompted evacuations in Mexico City, as the quake made buildings sway in the country’s capital city. One man there was caught in a pool in a high-rise building during the commotion.
Mexico City’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, reported the city did not suffer any major damage from the earthquake, which initially had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale, according to Bloomberg. About 20 buildings in the capital city suffered minor damage.
Most of the damage occurred in the Pacific states closest to the Michoacan epicenter. More than 200 buildings, including schools and health centers, were damaged in those areas.
Laura Velazquez Alzua, the national civil protection agency coordinator, said two persons were killed due to partial building collapses in Manzanillo, Colima, on the Pacific coast, Bloomberg reported. Nine persons in Colima were injured.
In Michoacan, one person was injured in a rural hospital by falling glass. Homes in Manzanillo suffered structural damage, and two hospitals were still being assessed following the quake.
Monday marked the double anniversary of the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes. In ’85, the magnitude 8.1 earthquake in Mexico City killed at least 6,000 people. In comparison, the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on the same day 32 years later killed 369 people in the capital and other parts of the country’s south and center, collapsing 40 buildings and damaging more than 5,000 others.
