A strong earthquake struck western Mexico on Monday, sending buildings in the capital shaking thousands of miles away, coinciding with the anniversary of two strong earthquakes in 1985 and 2017, according to seismologists.
The National Seismological Agency estimated the magnitude of the quake at 7.4 and the US Geological Survey at 7.6.
According to the Mexican agency, the epicenter was 59 km south of Qualcomman in the state of Michoacán on the Pacific coast and hundreds of kilometers west of the capital of Mexico.
“We sincerely hope that nothing serious has happened,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted.
“So far we have not reported any damage,” Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said on Twitter.
Residents of the capital took to the streets only half an hour after they were prepared for earthquakes.
“We did not believe that what was happening was true. But it happened. The ground is again shaking very violently,” Karina Suarez, 37, told AFP in the center of the capital.
Every year on the anniversary of two major earthquakes on September 19, 1985 and 2017, earthquake drills are organized by the authorities.
On September 19, 2017, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed 369 people.
On the same day in 1985, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake devastated central Mexico, killing more than ten thousand people, most of them in the capital.
