The death toll from the earthquake that hit Colombia on Monday morning has risen to 224, local authorities said on Tuesday.
The quake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June.
The 7.4 magnitude quake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, struck at a depth of 107 km near San Jose del Palmar, in Choco, a sparsely populated province on Colombia’s Pacific Coast, but was felt in major cities nationwide.
