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Destroyed car in front of a hotel near Acapulco
Photo: David Guzman / EPA
Not far from the Mexican resort of Acapulco, the earth has shaken.
The US earthquake monitoring station USGS gave the strength of the tremor on Tuesday evening (local time) as 7.0, Mexico's seismological service SSN as 7.1.
According to the SSN, the center was in the southern state of Guerrero, around 17 kilometers northeast of the Mexican resort of Acapulco at a depth of around ten kilometers.
According to the US tsunami warning system, there was no danger of a tsunami on Guerrero's Pacific coast.
The governor of Guerrero, Héctor Astudillo, said on Milenio television that a man died in Coyuca de Benítez when a mast fell on him.
There are many reports of damage to buildings.
According to the SSN, 73 aftershocks have been recorded since 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday evening, the most violent having a magnitude of 5.2.
"We heard a loud noise from the building, objects fell in the house, the power went out," reports Sergio Flores from Acapulco.
"The water spilled out of the pool and people were screaming, they were very excited." People ran out of the hotels, some tried to get their cars out of the parking garage for fear that the building would collapse.
The quake could also be clearly felt in Mexico City, more than 300 kilometers away.
The mayor of the capital, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced on Twitter that there were initially no reports of serious damage.
In many parts of the city, however, the power went out.
Violent earthquakes occur time and again in Mexico.
The entire west coast of the American double continent lies on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which is known for its seismic activity.
On September 19, 2017, a tremor (magnitude 7.1) killed 369 people, 228 of them in Mexico City - at that time the epicenter was closer to the capital.
The accident occurred exactly 32 years to the day after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 10,000 people in Mexico City in 1985.
ala / dpa / AP