Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 9, 1995                   TAG: 9502090085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA                                LENGTH: Medium

QUAKE HITS NEAR BOGOTA

Hardest hit was the city of Pereira, where at least 20 people were killed and 135 injured by collapsing buildings and walls, according to city officials.

The death toll was expected to rise, said a police captain at the site of what once was a five-story apartment building. Rescuers worked into the night, trying to find three women thought to be alive in the pancaked structure.

``There are still many corpses left under there,'' said the policeman, who identified himself only as Capt. Machecas.

The quake, which struck at 1:41 p.m., had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 and was centered about 175 miles west of the capital of Bogota, the Geophysical Institute of the Andes reported. The Seismologic Institute of the West in Cali measured the quake at magnitude 6.2.

Civilians dug shoulder-to-shoulder with soldiers, police and firefighters through the rubble of concrete and bricks from the destroyed building in Pereira, looking for survivors. A boy was pulled from the debris.

A firefighter, his yellow slicker smudged with dirt, gently cradled the boy in his arms and carried him away.

TV images showed a highway overpass buckled by the quake, the body of a man lying on it.

Pereira officials cut electrical power in the city of 700,000 to avoid fires from possible gas leaks or downed power lines. Residents were urged to buy flashlights and candles.

Eight deaths were reported in other towns in western Colombia, including two people who died of heart attacks during the quake in Neiva and Trujillo. Another person died when a wall collapsed on her in the town of Armenia.

About 200 people were injured in all, said Gen. Luis Enrique Montenegro, deputy director of the National Police.

Near the epicenter, in the town of Dagua, the quake sent tiles sliding off roofs and crashing onto the ground, said resident Nelson Duque. ``It was horrible. They were hitting all around,'' Duque told RCN radio.

An earthquake of magnitude 6 is capable of causing severe damage in populated areas.

A Jan. 19 quake centered in Colombia's sparsely populated eastern plains killed eight people.

Keywords:
FATALITY