At least 20 people have been killed in a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck western Colombia on the 10th (local time), according to a tentative tally by local authorities.

According to Reuters, Mauricio Salazar, the mayor of Pereira in western Colombia, said in an interview with a local media outlet that 18 citizens were killed in the strong earthquake and additional people remain trapped in collapsed buildings.

Pereira is the capital of Risaralda Province, a high-altitude region dense with coffee production, and was located only about 60 kilometers east of the earthquake's epicenter.

In Manizales, located north of Pereira, two citizens were also killed by the earthquake, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said in an interview with a local radio station.

Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that "at least 20 structures have collapsed in Cali and people are currently trapped."

With buildings reported to have suffered severe damage in other cities across western Colombia as well, the number of casualties is expected to rise further as damage assessments continue.

Local media outlet Blu Radio earlier reported that damage, including severe structural destruction, had been reported in western cities such as Manizales, Cali, and Armenia.

An official government-wide tally of injuries and deaths has not yet been released.

Colombia's aviation authority announced that following the earthquake, damage reports were received from six airports in the western region, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, and Buenaventura.

President Abelardo de la Espriella, who officially took office on the 7th, posted on X that he had ordered the convening of a unified command center to oversee the assessment of damage and support for displaced residents, adding, "I will personally direct measures to support all affected local communities."

According to a preliminary analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck near San Jose del Palmar in the Pacific coastal department of Choco at around 7:34 a.m. local time (8:34 p.m. KST) on the same day.

This earthquake occurred a little over a month and a half after a series of strong earthquakes struck northern Venezuela on June 24.

The official death toll from those strong earthquakes has surpassed 6,000 to date.