MEXICO CITY — A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck close to the port metropolis of Acapulco Tuesday evening, Mexico’s seismological company mentioned, shaking the capital, Mexico Metropolis, greater than 230 miles away. Not less than one individual was killed in consequence, the authorities mentioned.
Mexico’s nationwide seismological service mentioned the quake struck about seven miles southwest of Acapulco simply earlier than 9 p.m. native time. The service recorded 92 aftershocks within the hours after the quake. Photographs from the town shared on social media confirmed cracked and broken buildings, fallen lamp posts and streets strewn with damaged glass.
The civil safety company for Guerrero state, house to Acapulco, mentioned the quake had led to energy and cellphone outages. Movies from each Acapulco and Mexico Metropolis additionally confirmed the evening sky lit up with electrical flashes as energy strains swayed and buckled.
The Federal Electrical energy Fee mentioned that 1.6 million users were left without power in Mexico Metropolis and the states of Mexico, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Morelos.
Within the capital, energy strains and buildings swayed for a number of seconds, and residents rushed exterior to hunt protected floor. Some neighborhoods in Mexico Metropolis have been left with out energy, the police mentioned.
In an interview with an area radio station, Héctor Astudillo, the governor of Guerrero state, mentioned that one individual had died from a falling submit within the city of Coyuca de Benítez west of Acapulco.
Mr. Astudillo added that there had been reviews of falling rocks and landslides, and that partitions had fallen down in Chilpancingo, the state’s capital. Many elements of Acapulco have been with out energy late Tuesday night. “We try to proceed gathering info,” the governor mentioned.
A consultant for the Pink Cross in Chilpancingo mentioned it had obtained no reviews of significant accidents. The well being secretary for Guerrero state mentioned there had been no hospital admissions on account of the quake.
The U.S. tsunami warning system issued a warning for Mexico, although the civil safety workplace for Guerrero state mentioned later that there was no threat of a tsunami. Waves, it mentioned, have been anticipated to be beneath three toes in peak.
America Geological Survey mentioned the quake, which it measured at 7.0, was very shallow, solely 7.8 miles beneath the floor, which might have amplified the shaking impact.
Nevertheless, the authorities throughout Mexico mentioned that the quick results of the quake on infrastructure had been restricted.
“There was no critical harm,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mentioned in a video posted to Twitter at about 11 p.m. Japanese time, including that he had spoken to state and native authorities within the affected areas.
The mayor of Mexico Metropolis, Claudia Sheinbaum, mentioned that the capital’s subway system was again up and working after companies have been briefly shut down due to the quake. A newly put in cable automobile within the working-class neighborhood of Iztapalapa, which might be seen swaying violently in the course of the quake in movies shared on-line, was additionally again in service, Ms. Sheinbaum mentioned.
The federal electrical energy fee was working to revive energy to neighborhoods that had gone darkish due to the quake, the mayor added.
Mexico isn’t any stranger to earthquakes, with residents within the capital accustomed to common, and sometimes lethal, seismic exercise due to the nation’s place close to colliding sections of the earth’s crust.
Final 12 months, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific coast of Mexico and shook the agricultural state of Oaxaca, killing at the least six individuals and damaging some 500 houses. This adopted a devastating quake in 2017, which toppled buildings and left scores useless, together with kids who have been buried below a collapsed college.
Nonetheless, Mexican authorities have improved development codes and warning methods considerably because the devastating earthquake in 1985 that killed as many as 10,000 individuals within the Mexican capital, enormously decreasing the dangers of harm.
The capital’s earthquake warning system appeared to have functioned successfully on Tuesday, with audio system throughout the town issuing a loud siren and a spoken warning of the quake a number of seconds earlier than it occurred, prompting many to hurry exterior.
Natalie Kitroeff contributed reporting from Mexico Metropolis. Vania Pigeonutt contributed reporting from Chilpancingo.