Rescue workers continued to dig through the wreckage in a frantic search for survivors following a catastrophic earthquake on Aug. 10 in western Colombia, the South American nation's worst this century.The 7.4 magnitude temblor killed at least 111 people just days after the country's new president was sworn in and came nearly seven weeks after twin quakes devastated neighboring Venezuela, killing more than 6,000.President Abelardo De La Espriella, who officially took office Aug. 7, said the immediate priority remains freeing those trapped beneath the rubble.“The national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed,” he said in a national address declaring a national emergency.The quake struck at 7:34 a.m. local time, damaging hospitals, infrastructure and residential towers, causing widespread communications outages and prompting authorities to suspend operations at multiple airports. In the absence of heavy equipment, rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveled debris by hand at many sites, looking for survivors.'It sounded like a bomb'Risaralda, in the central Andean region known for its coffee, seemed to suffer the brunt of the damage. In the capital city of Pereira, where the collapse of a four-story building was captured on video, rescue workers dug through the crumbled remains of structures seeking signs of life.In Manizales, also within the country’s coffee growing axis, other footage showed a tower atop the city’s landmark Gothic cathedral toppled from its foundation.In Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca, Juan Carlos Osorio told Caracol Television that neighbors at one felled structure site had formed human chains to speed up debris removal with “many people trapped” beneath the rubble.The collapse of the building, he said, “sounded like a bomb.”Colombia is located along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, recording thousands of mostly minor quakes monthly. In 1999, cities in the country's coffee region, including Armenia and Pereira, were hit by a massive 6.2 magnitude quake that killed more than 1,000 people.Colombia’s Pacific region, especially the portion hit by Monday’s quake, is among the nation’s poorest and partially nestled in dense jungle, The Guardian reported. The quake was felt in nearby Ecuador and Panama, the newspaper said.Suzan van der Lee, a seismologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said the quake's magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have aggravated damage in populated valleys despite its notable depth."This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn't cause as much shaking,” van der Lee said.The nation’s civil aviation authority suspended operations at several airports in the country's west, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, pending structural inspections.The situation poses a significant test for De La Espriella, a former lawyer who has never held political office. The rightwing candidate, endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, bested leftist senator Ivan Cepeda in a June runoff after vowing tough crackdowns on crime and proposing to build mega-prisons.Contributing: Reuters