A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Guatemala today, killing “around 10” people, causing panicked evacuations as far as Mexico City and a tsunami alert in El Salvador, firefighters said. The victims died in the Guatemalan town of San Pedro Sacatepequez, some 250 kilometres west of the capital Guatemala City. “Reports from colleagues in the area indicate that there are around 10 dead,” firefighters’ spokesman Sergio Vazquez said in a telephone interview. Communication was difficult in the area because phone lines fell and several places were without power, Vazquez said. The Guatemalan national disaster response agency (Conred) had confirmed only one death. In El Salvador, the president ordered people in a coastal area to evacuate their homes over fears of a potential tsunami. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 2205 IST some 24 kilometres south of Champerico, Guatemala and 163 kilometres west-southwest of Guatemala City. The depth was 41.6 kilometres. The Mexican Seismological Service said nine aftershocks followed the quake, which it put at a magnitude of 7.3, some 68 kilometres southwest of Ciudad Hidalgo in the state of Chiapas. The quake was strongly felt in Guatemala City and southern Mexico, prompting scenes of panic across the region. People streamed out of homes, schools and office buildings as far north as Mexico City. “We just had an earthquake,” Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter. “It was intense in a good part of the city,” he said, adding later that the quake did not cause any damage in the sprawling metropolis of 20 million people.
