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The death toll from a devastating earthquake that flattened dozens of buildings in western Colombia jumped to 224, local authorities said on Tuesday as emergency workers dug through the wreckage for survivors.
Rescue efforts carried into a second day as emergency workers dug through collapsed buildings and flattened homes, amid expectations that the death toll from the country’s most powerful earthquake in decades could rise.
The 7.4 magnitude earthquake, the most powerful to strike the South American country in decades, tore through Colombia’s coffee-growing heartland early on Monday, reduced multi-story buildings to rubble in cities such as Pereira and Cali, and caused one of the spires of a cathedral in the city of Manizales to collapse.
Emergency teams aided by police, soldiers and volunteers worked through the night with excavators and, at times, their bare hands, hunting for survivors beneath debris.
