7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes in Mexico near Acapulco Prompts Tsunami Warning

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck north of coastal resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, on Tuesday, killing at least one person, officials said.

The temblor sent residents running into the streets of Mexico City, over 230 miles away.

The quake toppled pillars at some Acapulco hotels and hurled chunks of concrete to the ground. About 1.6 million Mexicans lost power, according to the Federal Electricity Commission. But there were no immediate reports of significant damage, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in a video message posted on Twitter.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.0-magnitude quake struck 11 miles northeast of Acapulco. Officials initially issued a tsunami warning, but U.S. and Mexican officials later said such an event was unlikely.

Still, the quake was strong enough to be felt by residents of Mexico City, the capital, where the lights went off in some buildings and many residents ran outside, huddling together in the rain.

“It was terrible. It really reminds me of the 1985 quake every time something like this happens,” Yesmin Rizk, a 70-year-old resident of the capital’s Roma Sur neighborhood, told Reuters. That natural disaster destroyed hundreds of buildings in Mexico City and killed about 10,000 people, according to official estimates. Journalists and other observers believed the toll was far higher.

In Coyuca de Benítez, about 30 miles northwest of Acapulco, a man died after he was struck by an electric pole that slammed to the ground, according to Gov. Héctor Astudillo of Guerrero, the state Acapulco is in.

Patients in the ISSSTE hospital in Acapulco were moved to another wing because of damage to the building, according to local media. Debris cluttered the Carretera Escenica, the curving coastal scenic highway linking Acapulco to the nearby tourist hub of Punta Diamante.

Scores of aftershocks rattled the country, with the strongest reaching 5.2 magnitude, according to Mexican officials.