Magnitude 6.5 quake strikes southern Mexico's Chiapas
| USGS image


A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck southern Mexico's Chiapas state on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

USGS said the quake was centered about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Tapachula in the southern state of Chiapas.

Chiapas civil defense official Arturo Barrientos told The Associated Press that there were no reports of serious damage and authorities were monitoring the situation.

Barrientos said cracks appeared in a wall at an elementary school in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, but the children were evacuated safely.

"It was felt pretty strongly, but everything is normal. We went out into the street, and that was it," Enrique Vidal, a lawyer who lives in Tapachula said via text message. "Those with children in schools went to look for them since there are buildings that are still damaged from 2017."

The same region was rocked in September 2017 by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake that killed nearly 100 people and damaged thousands of buildings. A more damaging 7.1 quake in central Mexico later that month left more than 400 dead, including at least 228 in Mexico City.

"Fortunately there is no loss of human lives nor injuries that require hospitalization," Luis Manuel Garcia, Chiapas' civil defense secretary, told Foro TV. "Only nervousness."

Friday's quake was also felt in nearby Guatemala and farther away in El Salvador.

In Guatemala, the Red Cross reported some mud and rockslides along roads, and a bridge in the city of Quetzaltenango had some minor damage.

Along a central boulevard in Mexico City, which lies on lakebed soil that amplifies the effects of even faraway quakes, seismic alarms did not go off but some office workers briefly evacuated buildings.