Panama City: A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Panama on Friday morning, injuring 27, according to a bulletin released by the National Civil Protection System on Friday night.
The agency said no missing persons had been reported as of 20:00 local time on Friday (0100 GMT Saturday).
The quake shook buildings in the capital, prompting evacuations and sending tremors as far as neighbouring Colombia.
The quake was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). USGS initially reported the quake as magnitude 8, then revised it to 7.6 and later to 7.7.
The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning Friday for the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino called for calm on Friday, writing on X: “What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder.”
He solicitado a @DinoskaDinoska y organismos q informe sobre los efectos llamando a la calma No se debe usar lo sucedido para generar alarmas y desorden @Sinaproc_Panama
Panama lies along the 'Ring of Fire,' a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin, where most of the world's earthquakes occur.
Panama's Civil Protection said it was investigating possible damage in regions near the epicenter.
Visibly shaken residents of Panama City gathered outside as they waited for news of the quake's impact on Friday. Aftershocks followed, with the USGS recording two measuring 5.8 and 5.5.
“We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen, but we're okay, though we're very scared," Rosendo Domínguez, 60, who is from Herrera province, where the earthquake struck, told The Associated Press by phone. “Everyone is outside, scared.”
Video aired by local news outlets showed a Catholic cathedral collapsing and part of a hotel's facade falling onto a car in the city of Penonomé, in the central province of Coclé.
(With inputs from Reuters & AP via PTI )