Over 100 people were reported dead after a powerful earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale shook central and western Colombia on Monday morning. The tremors began at 7.34 am local time and lasted four minutes, according to the Colombian Geological Service, which said the epicenter was located in the western municipality of San José del Palmar, located in a rural, mountainous area in the Chocó department.

The strongest quake recorded in the country in the last decade was felt as far as Panama and Ecuador, and comes less than two months after neighboring Venezuela experienced two back-to-back earthquakes that have killed over 6,000 people.

Many of the victims died in the metropolitan area of the city of Pereira, said the mayor, Mauricio Salazar. There was also a lot of damage in Cali, the capital of the Valley of Cauca, where Mayor Alejandro Eder said around 30 structures have collapsed with “people trapped inside.”

Authorities in Manizales, Armenia and Buenaventura have also reported fatalities and structural damage. Cali, Pereira, Armenia and Manizales are together home to over 3.5 million people, making it likely that the casualty count will keep rising.

The newly inaugurated president of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, had not yet made any official statements after arriving in Bogotá a few hours after the quake; instead he posted a message on social media: “I’m on top of the situation. I am deeply saddened by what affected families and regions are going through.”

The president also wrote earlier that a Unified Command Center has been set up to coordinate rescue action. Through this center, the government has declared a national disaster, which will allow resources to be mobilized faster; however, authorities have stopped short of declaring a state of economic and social emergency, which would allow the president to issue decrees. 

In Cali, where dozens of structures have sustained damage, Mayor Alejandro Eder asked citizens to “remain calm and walk out of buildings” if they see any large cracks.

Colombia is a country at high risk for quakes as it sits on three tectonic plates. There is an average of 50,000 tremors a month, but most of them are too weak to be felt by human beings. In 1999, a magnitude 6.2 quake shook the city of Armenia, killing nearly 1,000 people. Earlier, in 1983, a quake in Popayán resulted in 287 fatalities.

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