Five television presenters were forced to flee for their lives when a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck southern Panama while they were broadcasting live. The quake hit at a depth of 10km, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), shortly before 3pm, with its epicentre located 6.2 miles from the small town of Pitaloza Arriba, near Panama's southern tip.
Live broadcast interrupted
The presenters were chatting on the station RPC Televisión when they noticed a change in the weather and looked around in confusion. Seemingly filming in a restaurant, one of the hosts grabbed onto the bar as the winds picked up.
Suddenly, everything started shaking violently, and glasses could be heard falling off shelves and shattering. Realising the incident was serious, all five hosts put down their microphones and darted out of view, one covering his head as he ran. With the camera still focused on the set, light fittings began swaying aggressively while bottles and plants were thrown to the floor.
Tsunami alert and damage reports
A wide-ranging tsunami alert was issued as a result, with the USGS warning that the damage was 'likely to be widespread'. It was said that tsunamis could have been triggered in Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, and Mexico. Approximately 4.6 million people felt moderate to severe shaking amid the quake, five of whom were on live television at the time.
The full extent of the earthquake's destruction has not yet been confirmed, nor is it known whether there have been casualties. Panamanian authorities have confirmed that several buildings, including the St John Baptist Cathedral and a local church, were damaged and around a dozen structures collapsed.
Residents share terrifying experiences
Omar Smith, who heads Panama's civil protection agency, told Telemetro Reporta that impacts had been reported in Chitre, the capital of Herrera, and along the coast in Los Santos province. Power was down across six provinces, according to electricity provider Naturgy, and flights were suspended by Tocumen International Airport. Schools suspended classes nationwide, with students pouring out onto the streets after being let out early.
Elderly residents were also seen in tears on the streets after evacuating as shallow aftershocks continued to rattle. 'We're scared. It's just the two of us old folks here. The house has cracked, and we're afraid it could fall on us,' Ricardo Brown, 74, told Reuters from Herrera province in southern Panama. He also noted that many homes had been damaged.
Another resident, Luke, counted 40 seconds of vibrations in Panama City, and Sabina Rios, who was on the sixth floor of an old US military-era building, said: 'The quake felt strong and lasted a long time, the longest I've felt in years.'
The director of Panama's geosciences institute, Nestor Luque, explained that long-built-up pressure in the Azuero Sona Fault System led to the earthquake. 'It's a system of active faults that occasionally, due to the accumulation of stress, release this amount of energy,' he said. 'The seismic signals have travelled throughout the national territory, and that is why it could be felt everywhere.'
