A strong earthquake off the Pacific Coast of Central America shook the region on Thursday, and could prompt hazardous tsunami waves, US monitoring agencies said, just as a hurricane barrelled into the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Emergency services in El Salvador said on Twitter there were no immediate reports of damage at a national level.
The 7.0 magnitude quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.2, was very shallow at 10.3 kilometres below the seabed, which would have amplified its effect. Its epicenter was located some 149kmsouth-southwest of Puerto Triunfo in El Salvador, according to the US Geological Survey.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega declared a state of emergency due to the quake and Hurricane Otto, which landed on the country’s southeastern coast earlier on Thursday, his spokeswoman said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre warned that “hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 300 kilometers of the earthquake epicentre.”
El Salvador’s government also said it saw the threat of tsunami waves hitting the coast.
Earlier on Thursday, the Category 2 hurricane hit land near the south-eastern coast of Nicaragua, where thousands had already been evacuated away from vulnerable coastal areas and into shelters.