Star Metro - Major earthquake rocks Panama, triggers tsunami warning

USGS said the quake was detected at 1756 GMT with an epicenter 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the small town of Pitaloza Arriba in the south-center of Panama.

It triggered a tsunami warning for Panama and warnings of smaller but dangerous waves along the coasts of other countries in Latin America and the south Pacific.

The quake, registered at a shallow depth of 12 kilometers, was felt across the country of around 4.5 million people, according to the National Civil Protection System, and lasted for around a minute.

The US Tsunami Warning System said that tsunami waves up to three meters high could hit the Panama coastline in the coming hours.

In Panama City, about 200 kilometers from the epicenter, there were scenes of panic as people rushed to evacuate from skyscrapers, AFP witnessed.

There were no reports yet of casualties but extensive damage was expected, particularly in the center of the Central American nation.

"I'm in shock right now and haven't been able to contact my family," Luis Poveda, a factory worker in the central city of Santiago de Veraguas told AFP.

- Huge aftershocks -

"We all ran out of the building, the power lines were swaying, and everyone was outside," Arnulfo Santos, a worker at a flour mill in the same city said.

Images shared by local media showed that part of a hotel had collapsed in the town of Penonome, 150 kilometers southwest of Panama City.

A church in Penonome was also seriously damaged and other buildings showed cracks, according to local reports.

A road in the province of Veraguas had cracks, according to images released by the local press.

Over a dozen large aftershocks, one a magnitude-6 tremor, were recorded by the local geosciences institute.

Writing on X, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino called for calm.

"What happened should not be used to generate alarms and disorder," he said, adding that he had called for a report on the damage.

Earthquakes are rare in Panama and when they do occur usually strike in western Chiriqui province, bordering Costa Rica.

The Panamanian quake is at least the fourth quake this year in Latin America surpassing 7.0 in magnitude, after devastating earthquakes in Venezuela's Guaira in June and a powerful earthquake in western Colombia in August.

J.Hall--SMC