Powerful earthquake rocks Costa Rica

PanARMENIAN.Net - A powerful earthquake rocked Costa Rica on Wednesday, Sept 5causing the deaths of at least two people, damaging buildings, and briefly triggering a tsunami warning, according to Reuters.

Residents of the capital San Jose said phones went down, electricity poles rattled on the streets and water flowed out of pools after the 7.6-magnitude quake. The were also unconfirmed media reports of people being treated for injuries.

A spokesman for the local Red Cross said two people died during the earthquake, one from a heart attack. He was not immediately able to confirm media reports the other person had been crushed under a collapsing wall.

Locals were shocked by the force of the quake, the biggest to hit Costa Rica since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1991 left 47 dead.

President Laura Chinchilla said there had not been reports of serious damage to buildings, although some hotels on the western Pacific coast had been hit, locals said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a warning for Pacific coastlines of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, but this was later canceled. The center had earlier warned of tsunamis for as far afield as Mexico and Peru.

The quake's epicenter was in western Costa Rica about 87 miles from San Jose, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, and it was felt as far away as Nicaragua and Panama.