A strong earthquake struck southern and central Mexico on Friday, disrupting President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first news briefing of the new year as seismic alarms were triggered.
Mexico’s National Seismological Agency said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5, with an epicenter near San Marcos in Guerrero, a southern state near the Pacific coastal resort of Acapulco, according to PTI.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of 21.7 miles (35 kilometers), with its epicenter about 2.5 miles north-northwest of Rancho Viejo in Guerrero, a mountainous region about 57 miles northeast of Acapulco.
It said the quake struck at 1358 GMT, or 7:58 a.m. local time.
Sheinbaum continued her press briefing shortly after, saying she had spoken with Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado, who informed her that no major damage had been reported so far.
Meanwhile, residents and tourists in Mexico City and Acapulco rushed to the streets as tremors were felt.
Mexico City’s central areas are particularly vulnerable to earthquake damage because they are built on soft, muddy terrain that was once a lake bed, according to AFP.
The tremors that are felt most intensely in the capital usually originate from the Pacific coast near the state of Guerrero.
Previous earthquake
According to the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), a magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit the border region of Mexico and Guatemala last November. According to Reuters, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 160 km (99 miles).
Earlier, in August, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake was reported off the coast of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The GFZ said the quake struck at a depth of 10 km (6.21 mi).
An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit the coast of the Mexican state of Chiapas in June last year, the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said. The EMSC said the quake occurred at a depth of 10 km (6.2 mi).
On September 19, 1985, a massive 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck large parts of Mexico City, killing nearly 13,000 people, according to official records.
(With input from agencies)
