At least three people were killed and scores injured when a strong 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Costa Rica on Thursday, causing widespread panic and damage.
“Today is a day of mourning for Costa Ricans, because the earthquake killed three people, two children and a woman,” Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said at a joint news conference with the head of the National Emergency Commission.
Police and neighbors found the bodies of two sisters who had been selling candy near the epicenter, near the Poas volcano, one of Costa Rica’s main tourist attractions, after they were killed by a landslide caused by the quake.
The woman died of a heart attack.
The quake injured 208 people, damaged some 42 communities as well as electricity networks, and cut off 300 tourists in a luxury hotel near Poas, emergency services said.
The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale, revising down an initial figure of 6.2.
The quake, which hit at 1:21pm about 35km northwest of the capital, shook water out of swimming pools and witnesses said they had not felt such a strong tremor in 30 years. It was felt across the Central American country and also in neighboring Nicaragua.
A spokesman for Costa Rican Red Cross said that two communities near the epicenter, Vara Blanca and Cinchona, had been cut off due to serious road damage.
Residents telephoned local radio programs to report injured people needing urgent attention while officials warned of landslides on roads in mountainous areas near the epicenter, where aftershocks continued.
Transport Minister Karla Gonzalez said the government had contracted most private helicopters in the country, which has no army, to help with rescue operations.
The emergency commission declared a red alert in the capital and surrounding areas “where serious damage to infrastructure, roads and homes has been reported and some people were injured and trapped in their houses.”
San Jose residents reported broken windows, cracks in buildings, ceilings and roads.
Public buildings, including the finance ministry, were evacuated, and many people ran onto the streets of the capital.
The city’s international airport briefly suspended all flights, a spokeswoman said.
Another, smaller quake shook central Costa Rica on Wednesday, causing no deaths or damage.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS