Five feared dead as Mexico is hit by magnitude 8.0 earthquake

Tragedy struck in the southern province of Mexico when an earthquake measuring 8.0 magnitude hit the coast killing no less than five people with reports of a tsunami wave of up to one metre measured off the Salina Cruz coast.

The earthquake which is regarded as the biggest in a century to hit the country was put at 8.2 by President Enrique Pena Nieto, making it the largest in Mexico in 100 years.

Read also: MEXICO: 9 dead, 11 injured in deadly prison fight

However, the US Geological Survey reported the earthquake’s magnitude as 8.1 even as President Nieto said it was bigger than the one in 1985, when thousands were killed in four Mexican states.

“It was a large-scale earthquake,” Pena Nieto said. “It had a bigger magnitude than the one Mexicans knew in 1985.”

Reports say the epicentre of the earthquake was 123km southwest of the town of Pijijiapan, at a depth of 70km, according to USGS.

The death toll in the massive earthquake has risen to at least five people, including two children in Tabasco State.

 

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