A tower fell from the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary as a major earthquake shook Manizales and a broad area of western Colombia. Debris landed near the building, and imagery from the aftermath showed damage across its front.
Colombia's geological authority placed the initial shock at 7:34 in the morning, local time. Its preliminary measurement was magnitude 7.4, with the origin near San José del Palmar in Chocó. The agency calculated an 82-kilometre depth. The U.S. Geological Survey likewise listed magnitude 7.4. Supplied coverage also mentioned a separate magnitude 5.0 event.
The basilica, identified in the reporting as the country's tallest cathedral, became a prominent visual marker of the disaster. Yet Manizales sustained damage well beyond the religious site. Mayor Jorge Rojas told Blu Radio that 10 or more buildings had completely failed. He also counted 20 destroyed homes and two deaths within the city. Partial failures were still being tallied.
Elsewhere, authorities and news reports documented structural problems in Cali, Pereira and Quibdó. Cali had at least 19 damaged buildings, according to the supplied material. Response crews went to sites where occupants might have been trapped. Quibdó, closer to the earthquake's origin, reported injuries and serious property damage.
Airport activity paused temporarily in Manizales, Armenia and Pereira so facilities could be checked. Some affected communities lost electricity or experienced unreliable telephone and internet connections. The shaking reached Medellín, Bogotá, Armenia and numerous departments in Colombia's centre and west. People also felt it in Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela.
At 8:18 a.m., another shock struck near Nóvita in Chocó. Its reported magnitude was 4.6. Officials advised people to anticipate more aftershocks. They also warned against re-entering impaired buildings before a structural review.
President Abelardo de la Espriella said the government would establish a unified response command focused on San José del Palmar. He requested a needs and conditions report from the national disaster agency and said he would go to Pereira to oversee assistance.
Initial national death counts in the evidence conflict and changed rapidly. This report consequently uses only Rojas's specifically attributed Manizales figure rather than choosing among unstable nationwide totals.
The fallen cathedral tower was therefore one part of a dispersed emergency. Inspections, searches and communications restoration were continuing. The exact national human cost and full scale of property losses were not settled by the evidence available for August 10.
Because the main tremor occurred at intermediate depth, it was perceived across a large territory. Depth can sometimes moderate surface effects compared with an equally powerful shallow event, but the documented collapses demonstrate that serious local consequences still occurred. Authorities were continuing to distinguish safe buildings from those requiring evacuation or repair.
