In Pereira, a city in Colombia’s coffee-growing region, Mayor Mauricio Salazar said 18 people had died. In nearby Manizales, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said two people were killed.
Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, said that at least 20 buildings had collapsed in the city and some had “people trapped inside.” Emergency response teams have set up tents in the area to coordinate rescue efforts, Eder added.
Sunday was the beginning of a weeklong festival celebrating the region’s Afro-Pacific culture, which brings hundreds of thousands of tourists to Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city.
Cali resident Luis Angel Sarria told NBC News he strongly felt the earthquake there.
“There are many damaged buildings, collapsed buildings, people trapped and fatalities; the quake felt here was very severe,” Sarria, a taxi driver, said in Spanish. “What has happened here in my country has been very hard and very sad.”
While Sarria and his immediate family are safe, he said, “We are saddened by the loss of life.”
In Cali, rescue teams and volunteers began clearing rubble as they searched for survivors trapped beneath some of the collapsed buildings.
In Jamundí, about 15 miles south of Cali, Maria Alejandra Soto Zea was inside her apartment with her 2-year-old son when she felt the earthquake. Its intensity grew quickly, she said, leaving her unable to quickly evacuate her home.
As she sought the exit, Soto Zea said, the shaking was so intense that she made it only to the kitchen. There, she held on to the kitchen counter with all her strength while also carrying her toddler, she told NBC News in Spanish.
“Right now, I have back pain from the stress of the moment, from shouting, from gripping the counter so tightly and from the anguish of thinking I wouldn’t be able to get out of here with my son,” Soto Zea said.
When the trembling subsided, the 27-year-old mother took the stairs seven stories down with her young child in her arms and evacuated the building. Worried about aftershocks, she began packing a few bags on Monday afternoon to stay with relatives elsewhere.
