Urgent tsunami alert after massive 7.7 earthquake topples buildings in Panama

Published: 04:13 EDT, 10 October 2026 | Updated: 04:13 EDT, 10 October 2026

A massive magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked Panama on Friday, damaging buildings and triggering an urgent tsunami threat message.

The earthquake struck southwest of Pitaloza Arriba, a village of just over 100 residents in Herrera province, with shakes reported hundreds of miles away. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 1.56pm ET at a shallow depth and that some casualties were possible.

Reports of collapsed buildings, split roads, and caved-in roofs have since emerged with authorities saying damage is concentrated in central Panama.

Devastating quake: Reports of collapsed buildings, split roads, and caved-in roofs have emerged from Panama after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit on Friday

Locals have reported people trapped in rubble, with one incident seeing a hotel fall on top of a car with people inside.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center first warned that hazardous waves were possible along parts of the coasts of nine countries: Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico.

However, the center updated it’s messaging around three hours after to say that the earthquake and tsunami threat had passed.

Strong shaking forced people to evacuate buildings in Panama City, about 122 miles from the epicenter.

The U.S. embassy in Panama is monitoring the aftermath of the earthquake, saying on X it was ‘assessing potential damage’ from the major incident.

Huge impact: A massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake has rocked Panama, triggering an urgent tsunami threat message

Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino is calling for calm, saying on X: ‘One should not use the event to create alarm and disorder.’

Footage from the San Miguelito Metro station in Panama City captured panic and evacuations moments after the area shook.

Workers and visitors of a maternity ward at the Santo Tomas Hospital in Panama City were also seen fleeing the building.

Get out! People seen evacuating the maternity ward of the Santo Tomas hospital

The evacuation of the hospital forced even week-old babies outside, as residents waited for news about impacts.

Sabina Rios, who was on the sixth floor of an ‌old U.S. ⁠military-era building in Panama City, told Reuters the shaking was unusually strong and prolonged.

She said: ‘The quake felt strong and lasted a long time, the longest I’ve felt in years.’

Tumbling down: Social media footage from Penonome shows damage to a church and nearby buildings

Traffic backed up across Panama City as many offices released employees early, unsure of conditions or potential structural damage to buildings, and the Metro halted service.

Students in uniform poured onto the streets of downtown Panama as schools were let out early across the city.

The Panama Canal Authority reported that the country’s waterways are operating normally.

Backed up: Workers and students were sent home early after the quake causing traffic to back up throughout Panama City

The quake’s ​epicenter was close to the rural ​community of La Pitaloza in a ⁠sparsely populated area of Herrera, near the Pacific coastline.

Rosendo Domínguez, 60, who is from Herrera province, told The Associated Press: ‘We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we’re OK, though we’re very scared. Everyone is outside, scared.’

Shaking was also felt as far as San Jose, the capital of neighboring Costa Rica, according to a Reuters witness.

Completely ruined: A car damaged by falling debris in Panama City

In Penonome, a city about halfway between the epicenter and Panama ​City, social media videos show a damaged church and nearby collapsed buildings.

Several people have been reported injured, Omar Smith of the National Civil Protection Service said, including one struck by debris from a structure that partially collapsed in Penonome.

The cathedral in the district’s main square and the Dos Continentes hotel also sustained damage, including a partial collapse and cracks, he confirmed. No deaths were immediately reported.

Finding safety: A maternity ward in Panama City was forced to evacuate, forcing week-old babies outside

Cocle’s provincial government said the governor’s palace suffered substantial structural damage, but employees were safely evacuated.

Around 45 minutes later, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit in Bajo Corral, which is located 28 miles east of Pitaloza Arriba.

The USGS then recorded a third quake with a magnitude of 5.8 near El Cacao. The village lies about 18 miles southwest of the first quake’s epicenter.

At least seven more aftershocks have struck since the initial quake.

A USGS map shows the strongest shaking from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake was reported near the epicenter on the Azuero Peninsula, with powerful tremors around Ocu and Las Tablas.

Shaking was also reported in Santiago and farther west in David, Boquete and Changuinola.