1 dead after major quake hits Mexico on anniversary of deadly temblors

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck western Mexico on Monday, at 1.05pm local time, leaving at least one person dead and sparking panic hundreds of kilometres away in Mexico City, on the anniversary of two devastating tremors.

According to the US Geologic Survey, which had initially put the magnitude at 7.5, the quake was centred 37km southeast of Aquila near the boundary of Colima and Michoacan states, and at a depth of 15.1km.

One person was killed by falling debris in a shopping center in Manzanillo, situated in the western state of Colima, according to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in a Twitter post.

Michoacan's Public Security Department said there were no immediate reports of significant damage in that state beyond some cracks in buildings in the town of Coalcoman.

Mexico's National Civil Defense agency said that the navy's tsunami centre had not issued an alert because no variation in sea levels was expected, given the epicentre's location. However, that contradicted an alert from the US Tsunami Warning Center, which said that hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 300km of the epicentre.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum also tweeted that there were no reports of damage in the capital

Alarms for the new quake came less than an hour after a quake alarms warbled in a nationwide earthquake simulation marking major, deadly quakes that struck on the same date in 1985 and 2017.

Humberto Garza stood outside a restaurant in Mexico City's Roma neighbourhood holding his 3-year-old son. Like many milling about outside after the earthquake, Garza said that the earthquake alarm sounded so soon after the annual simulation that he was not sure it was real.

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