Magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Panama, widespread damage and tsunami alert lifted

An earthquake with a magnitude updated to 7.7 struck south-central Panama on Friday, October 9, 2026, at 12:56 local time (17:56 GMT). The epicenter was located 12 kilometers from the town of Tonosí and about 239 kilometers from Panama City, according to data from the United States Geological Survey cited by the EFE agency. The initial estimate released immediately after the tremor indicated a magnitude of 7.6 and a depth of between 10 and 12 kilometers; the upward revision came in the following hours, when the USGS refined its calculations based on seismographic data.

In the hours immediately following, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for nine countries along the Central American Pacific coast: Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. The alert was later lifted by the same U.S. center that had issued it, with no anomalous waves recorded along the affected coastlines.

The earthquake cut off electricity in six Panamanian provinces. Tocumen International Airport, the country’s main hub, temporarily suspended flights. In Panama City, Lines 1 and 2 of the metro system were evacuated to allow technical inspections of the structures, according to the preliminary assessment gathered by the national Centro de Operaciones de Emergencias and reported by the newspaper La Prensa.

The most extensive damage, at this stage, concerns the water network. The joint report by the Ministry of Government and Sinaproc, Panama’s civil protection agency, notes structural failures in “almost all” of the country’s water treatment plants; the facility supplying the capital is operating at 20% of its usual capacity, a reduction authorities describe as temporary.

The preliminary assessment from the Centro de Operaciones de Emergencias, again according to La Prensa, also reports the collapse of the Dos Continentes hotel in Coclé province, fifteen students with minor injuries and one person rescued at the municipal market in Aguadulce. The assessments released so far by Panamanian authorities report no fatalities linked to the earthquake.

A Panamanian resident, Rosendo Dominguez, quoted by ABC News, described the intensity of the tremor: “We felt it very strongly. It knocked things over in the kitchen” (transl. from English).

For now, the assessment remains provisional and limited to material damage: none of the sources consulted has reported any fatalities, while the capital’s water network continues to operate at reduced capacity and technicians continue checks on the affected infrastructure.