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After the tremors: Frightened people escape to the open in Mexico City
Photo: RODRIGO ARANGUA / AFP
Mexico was hit by an earthquake on Monday - of all days on the anniversary of the two devastating earthquakes in 1985 and 2017. The center of the quake was 59 kilometers south of Coalcoman in the state of Michoacán on the Pacific coast, as the National Seismological Institute announced on Monday.
It put the magnitude at 7.4.
The USGS gave it a 7.6.
The tremors were also felt in the capital, Mexico City.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said after talking to a military representative from the western state of Colima that one person had died when a wall collapsed in a shop there.
Property damage had been reported to him from other regions, but there was still no information about some areas.
The tsunami warning agency warned of potentially dangerous waves that could reach a height of one to three meters on some stretches of Mexico's coast.
However, at first there were no reports that the coast was actually hit by high waves.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said no damage had been reported so far.
The operator of the local subway also said that the necessary checks had been carried out and that the trains could run normally.
An earthquake drill had just ended in the Mexican capital half an hour before the earthquake.
The residents immediately left their homes.
“We thought that can't be true!
But.
It's impressive that the earth is shaking so hard again today," said 37-year-old Karina Suárez in the center of the capital.
September 19: fateful day in Mexico's history
On the anniversary of the two major earthquakes of September 19, 1985 and 2017, the Mexico City authorities regularly hold an earthquake drill.
On September 19, 1985, an 8.1 magnitude tremor in Mexico City killed more than 10,000 people and destroyed hundreds of buildings.
On September 19, 2017, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed around 370 people, most in the capital.
Mexico borders the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and is one of the most seismically active countries in the world.
The national territory extends over a total of five tectonic plates.
sol/AFP/Reuters