Magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Panama, prompting tsunami warnings

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama just before 15:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Friday, 9 October, according to the BBC. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the epicentre was about 10km (6 miles) southwest of the community of Pitaloza Arriba, near the country's southern tip. Euronews reported that the USGS gave the magnitude as 7.6 and placed the epicentre about 14km southwest of Pitaloza Arriba.

DW reported a depth of 10km, while the BBC reported 12km. About 4.6 million people felt moderate to severe tremors, the USGS said, according to the BBC. The USGS later reported a second earthquake measuring 6.6 after a series of aftershocks, DW reported, and Euronews reported aftershocks of magnitudes 5.8 and 5.5.

Many people in Panama City, about 200km from the epicentre, left buildings and gathered in streets and parks until the shaking stopped, the BBC reported. Tocumen International Airport briefly suspended operations and activated evacuation protocols before reopening on Friday afternoon, DW reported. Omar Smith of Panama's National Civil Protection Service said damage was concentrated in the central provinces of Veraguas, Herrera and Los Santos and reported several injuries, according to DW. Panama's education ministry ordered schools closed, Al Jazeera reported.

Smith reported partial collapses and cracks at a cathedral in a district's main square, as well as damage to the governor's office building and the Dos Continentes hotel, DW reported. The BBC reported that verified footage showed one side and a spire of a cathedral in Penonomé had collapsed, and that a video showed a local hotel almost completely collapsed. Local news outlets reported that the Church of San Atanasio in Los Santos province collapsed, DW reported; the church was declared a National Historic Heritage Site in 1938. The BBC said no casualties had been reported so far.

President José Raúl Mulino said his entire government was mobilising in response, the BBC reported. "What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder," he wrote on X, according to Euronews and Al Jazeera. DW reported that Mulino described the earthquake as a "major disaster" that had destroyed roads near the epicentre.

Tsunami warnings were initially issued for 11 countries neighbouring Panama before the US Tsunami Warning System confirmed there was no threat, the BBC reported. DW reported the system had said hazardous waves were possible along parts of the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, and had also reported a threat to Hawaii, before the warning was lifted later on Friday. Euronews and Al Jazeera reported warnings for Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, and Al Jazeera reported that Chile's naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service also issued a tsunami warning. The Panama Canal Authority said the waterway was operating as usual, according to DW and the BBC.