Colombia quake death toll reaches 265

Colombia’s president said on Aug. 12 that the death toll from a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country on Aug. 10 had risen to 265, with about 3,500 people injured, Asahi Shimbun reported.

The earthquake hit Colombia in South America on the morning of Aug. 10 at a depth of about 100 kilometers. As the 72-hour mark approached, a point at which survival rates are said to fall sharply, many people were believed to be trapped under buildings. The government put the number of missing at about 500, while some reports said the figure was in the thousands.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an Aug. 12 report that about 10,000 homes had been completely destroyed and 45,000 homes damaged.

nwsTrailVIDEOS: Over a hundred people have died in the 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Colombia

Colombian and overseas media compared the quake with recent earthquakes in Kumamoto and Venezuela. Experts pointed to the need to review Colombia’s seismic building standards.

The July 28 Kumamoto earthquake was magnitude 7.1 and had killed 39 people as of the report, while the June 24 Venezuela disaster involved consecutive magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes and killed more than 6,300 people. Brazilian media company Globo criticized Venezuela for fragile buildings and said “the government response was also slow,” while it praised Kumamoto for “strict seismic standards and swift government response.” On Colombia, Globo said that “although seismic standards exist because earthquakes occur often, many buildings were damaged.”