Mexico earthquake: tsunami confirmed after 8.4 magnitude quake kills five

A major 8.4 magnitude earthquake off Mexico coast sparks warning of possible tsunami Photograph: via ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock


Initial waves reach 1 metre above tide level as some residents on the south western coast reportedly told to evacuate

Friday 8 September 2017 08.26 BST

A magnitude 8.4 earthquake has struck off the coast of Mexico leaving at least five dead, mass evacuations and warnings of tsunamis across the region.
The quake occurred 165km west of the state of Chiapas just before midnight on Thursday local time, and was said to be the strongest earthquake to hit the country since 1985, according to the civil protection agency.
Three people were confirmed dead in Chiapas, and two in Tabasco state, as the Pacific tsunami warning centre said waves as high as three metres could strike the coast.

The Tabasco governor, Arturo Nunez, said the two killed were children. One died after a wall collapsed and the other was a baby who died in a children’s hospital that lost electricity.
Initial waves 1m over tide level were recorded at the Mexican city of Salina Cruz by the Pacific tsunami warning centre. They predicted waves between 0.3 and 1 metres for the Cook Islands, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guatemala and Kiribati.
Waves below 0.3 metres were forecast for countries as far as Australia, Japan and Vietnam.
The tsunami threat to Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa was ruled out.

In Mexico, civil protection officials were checking for damage in Chiapas, but the quake was so powerful that it frightened residents in Mexico City more than 1,000 kms (650 miles) away. People fled apartment buildings, often in their pyjamas, and gathered in groups in the street.
Around midnight buildings swayed strongly for more than minute, loosening light fixtures from ceilings.
Rodrigo Soberanes, who lives near San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, told the Associated Press his house “moved like chewing gum” with the quake.
The governor of Chiapas, Manuel Velasco, said the rooves of homes and a shopping center had collapsed in San Cristobal.
“Hospitals have lost energy,” he said. “Homes, schools and hospitals have been affected.”


Patients and doctors of a hospital in Villahermosa in the Mexican state of Tabasco remain in the open air after the earthquake. Photograph: str/EPA

In Guatemala, the president, Jimmy Morales, said he had reports of an unconfirmed death near the border with Mexico in San Marcos state.
“We have reports of some damage and the death of one person, even though we still don’t have details,” he said.
Lucy Jones, a seismologist in California who works with the U.S. Geological Survey, said such as quake was to be expected.
“Off the west coast of Mexico is what’s called the subduction zone, the Pacific Plate is moving under the Mexican peninsula,” she said.
In Mexico City, helicopters crisscrossed the sky with spotlights. Some neighbourhoods had electricity while others were in darkness.

People react on a street in downtown Mexico City after an earthquake of magnitude 8.4 struck southern Mexico. Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

The Mexican seismological authority said the quake was 19km deep, and triggered a series of magnitude 6 aftershocks.
“Chiapas is historically a very seismic state due to the interaction of five tectonic plates”, it said in a report on the earthquake. The state has suffered three tremors above magnitude 7 since 1970, including one on 7 November 2012 that measured at 7.3.
In 1985, a magnitude 8 earthquake in Mexico City levelled large portions of the national capital. Much of the city was built on the soft soil of a former lakebed, leaving it vulnerable to earthquakes with epicentres offshore or in the the southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero.
Building codes have been tightened since 1985, while earthquake drills for apartment dwellers and officer workers in Mexico City have become common in recent years.