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TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) - - A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake rocked the
economic and tourist heart of Honduras Thursday, leaving five dead and
at least 13 hurt, and shaking neighboring countries as far away as Mexico.
"We have a first report of five dead and 13 wounded," said Ana Rivera,
spokeswoman of the Permanent Emergency Commission, at around midday,
updating an initial toll of one dead under a collapsed home. The quake struck at 2:24 am (0824 GMT) off the northern coast of
Honduras, near the tourist resort of the Islas de la Bahia in the
Caribbean, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The main tremor deep below the Caribbean coast led to a 90-minute
tsunami alert for Honduras and neighboring Guatemala and Belize, which
was later withdrawn. The quake -- which sent panicked residents onto the streets in the
middle of the night -- damaged two bridges, 50 homes, 10 schools, two
public buildings, two hotels, a factory and a church, Rivera said. A total of 17 aftershocks, all above magnitude four, had been recorded,
she added. A 15-year-old boy was killed and another injured when their home
collapsed in La Lima, some 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the
Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, authorities said earlier. At least seven people were being treated for broken bones in hospital in
San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city and economic capital near
the northern coast, where more more damage was expected, said Marco
Burgos, chief of the emergency commission. San Pedro Sula is to host a general assembly of the Organization of
American States next week, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
is due to attend. Red Cross representative Jesse Salazar in Tegucigalpa
said there had been power outages and that communications were cut to
the tourist island of Roatan off the northern coast of Honduras. Roatan is the biggest of the Bahia islands, popular for fishing and
diving, and a major draw for US and European tourists and retirees
seeking its laid-back and inexpensive lifestyle. It has about 30,000 residents, but welcomes around 250,000 tourists a
year, according to official data. Kenton Pinet, a reception worker at Infinity Bay resort on Roatan, told
AFP by phone that "we did have a strong one ... but I haven't seen
injuries." Pinet said the resort's 56 guests were evacuated to higher ground, and
that the hotel sustained cracks in its parking lot and some minor
structural damage. On the mainland, worried locals poured onto the palm-lined streets of
the capital and other towns in the mostly poor, mountainous nation of
7.6 million people. The quake's epicenter was 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of La Ceiba on
the coast and 63 kilometers (39 miles) northeast of Roatan on the Islas
de la Bahia in the Caribbean, the USGS said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch immediately
following the quake, but lifted it later when no reports of giant waves
were made. The last major earthquake to rattle the Central American nation was a
6.7 magnitude temblor in July 1999, the USGS said. Honduras, already facing widespread poverty, also has seen its food
security seriously compromised by the devastation caused by three
hurricanes last year. Its northern neighbor Guatemala declared a red alert in the northeast of
the country, where 10 homes were reported damaged. Shocks of a magnitude of around three were felt on some points of
Mexico's southeastern Yucatan Peninsula, Luis Carlos Rodriguez, from the
civil protection services, told local radio.
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