6.6 Earthquake Shakes Central, Southern Mexico

A magnitude-6.6 earthquake on Thursday hit central and southern Mexico, but there have been no reports of casualties, authorities said.

The temblor occurred exactly at noon and its epicenter was located 28 kilometers (17 miles) southwest of Tecpan in the southern state of Guerrero at a depth of 17 kilometers (10.5 miles), Mexico’s National Seismological Service said on Twitter.

The quake was strongly felt in the Mexican capital, where the majority of the downtown office buildings were evacuated.

Finance Secretary Luis Videgaray was presenting the 2013 Public Accounts report in the National Palace when the earthquake occurred, and the event was temporarily suspended.

The official asked those attending the presentation to take “a break” due to the temblor and urged them to leave the hall “everyone in an orderly way by the doors to the central patio.”

Emergency services are making an inspection of strategic installations in Mexico City and so far there have been no reports of casualties or material damage.

As usually happens in these cases, telephone service was jammed up for several minutes but, so far, no electricity outages have been detected.

“All the safety protocols are active,” Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said.

The capital metro is “functioning more slowly as per the protocol,” but without difficulty, while the water system is showing no irregularities, Mancera said on Mexican television.

Mexico is located in one of the most seismically active areas of the world.

On April 18, a magnitude-7.2 quake with its epicenter in Guerrero caused material damage, cutting power and telephone service, but no one was hurt.

Published in Latino Daily News