Ace Breaking News – A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Panama, damaging homes, cutting power, halting flights and sending residents into the streets, while triggering more than a dozen aftershocks according to Reuters News Agency Published: Sat 10 Oct 2026 at 8:26am

The quake happened off the country’s southern coast at a 12.6-kilometre depth, according to the United State’s Geological Survey.

Television images showed elderly residents in tears in the streets as a series of weaker aftershocks rattled the ​country.

Ricardo Brown, a 74-year-old in Herrera province in southern Panama, said the earthquake damaged a number of homes in his area of Las Minas.

“We’re scared. It’s just the two of ‌us old folks here. The house has cracked, and we’re afraid it could fall on us,” Mr Brown said.

The epicentre was close to the rural community of La Pitaloza in a sparsely populated area in the south of the country.

Earthquake ‘felt everywhere’

Major earthquakes are rare in Panama.

Nestor Luque, director of Panama’s geosciences institute, said the quake was triggered by the Azuero Sona Fault System that has long contained a build-up of pressure.

“It’s a system of active faults that occasionally, due to the accumulation of stress, release this amount of energy,” he said.

“The seismic signals have travelled throughout the national territory and that is why it ​could ‌be felt everywhere.”

The USGS estimated economic ‌losses could amount to between one to 10 per cent of Panama’s gross domestic ​product.

A tsunami threat triggered by the ⁠earthquake off Panama has passed, and no further tsunami danger remains, the US Tsunami Warning System said.

The Panama Canal is about 200 kilometres from the epicentre and is operating normally.

About 90 ‌vessels, including bulk carriers, tankers and container ships, were waiting at both ends of the key waterway to transit or dock at berths serving storage ⁠terminals and trans-shipment services, according to monitoring data.

Power was down across six provinces, and the Tocumen International airport, a major regional hub, had suspended flights.

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