6.5 magnitude earthquake rattles Mexico Metropolis and Acapulco, a preferred vacationer hotspot

A robust earthquake rattled southern and central Mexico on Friday, killing a minimum of two folks and injuring a number of. Officers mentioned there didn’t look like main injury from the quake.

The U.S. Geological Survey mentioned the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5. Its epicenter was close to the city of San Marcos within the southern state of Guerrero, close to the Pacific coastal resort city of Acapulco. 

It occurred at a depth of 21.7 miles, 2.5 miles north-northwest of Rancho Viejo, Guerrero. The quake was felt greater than 250 miles away in Mexico Metropolis.

Residents and vacationers in Mexico Metropolis and Acapulco rushed into the streets when the shaking started.

Karen Gomez, a 47-year-old workplace employee dwelling on the thirteenth ground of an house constructing in Mexico Metropolis, informed Agence France-Presse {that a} siren woke her up.

“I awakened in terror. My cellphone alert mentioned it was a robust earthquake,” she mentioned.

The civil protection company reported varied landslides round Acapulco and on different highways within the state.

Native officers mentioned a 60-year-old man in Mexico Metropolis died of his accidents after falling whereas evacuating his second-floor house within the capital, AFP reported. Mexico Metropolis Mayor Clara Brugada confirmed the loss of life in an announcement posted on social media. In a separate assertion on social media, she mentioned a minimum of 12 folks had been injured within the quake.

The second loss of life was reported close by in Guerrero. Gov. Evelyn Salgado informed reporters a 50-year-old girl died after her residence collapsed.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, whose first press briefing of the brand new 12 months was interrupted by the quake, mentioned she spoke with Salgado, who initially informed her there was no severe injury reported.

José Raymundo Díaz Taboada, a health care provider and human rights defender who lives on one of many peaks ringing Acapulco, mentioned he heard a powerful rumbling noise and all of the neighborhood canines started barking.

“In that second the seismic alert went off on my cellphone,” he mentioned, “after which the shaking started to really feel robust with quite a lot of noise.”

He mentioned the shaking was lighter than in some earlier quakes and he had ready a backpack of necessities to be prepared to go away because the aftershocks continued.

He mentioned he had been unable to achieve some pals who dwell alongside the Costa Chica, southeast of Acapulco, as a result of communications had been lower.

Mexico is located between 5 tectonic plates and is among the world’s most seismically energetic international locations.

In January 2025, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook a area of southwest Mexico. The tremor was about 5 miles from Coalcoman de Vazquez Pallares, a municipality of round 20,000 folks, about 372 miles west of Mexico Metropolis. The quake struck at a depth of 53 miles.

In 1985, an 8.1 magnitude quake centered on the Pacific coast ravaged a lot of central and southern Mexico, killing 1000’s and inflicting extreme injury in Mexico Metropolis.

A 7.1-magnitude quake on Sept. 19, 2017, killed 369 folks, most of them within the capital.

Precisely 5 years later, on the same date in 2022, central Mexico was hit by one other quake, simply hours after hundreds of thousands of individuals had taken half in a mock earthquake security train. The repercussions of the 7.6 magnitude quake prolonged so far as 1,500 miles north, the place four-foot-tall waves began churning inside a Dying Valley cave referred to as Devils Gap.