At least 69 people have been killed and dozens of buildings have collapsed in cities across western Colombia after a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the South American nation.

The quake on Monday trapped residents under debris, injured many more and forced people to flee their homes as far away as the capital, Bogota.

The epicentre was near San Jose del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region, roughly 250 miles (400km) west of Bogota, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Colombia’s geological service. The USGS said the earthquake struck at a depth of 66 miles (107km). Tremors were also felt in neighbouring Ecuador.

The quake left cities across western Colombia, including Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales, badly damaged, with residents picking through the rubble of collapsed buildings amid official warnings of possible aftershocks.

The Colombian Geological Service said it was “the highest-magnitude earthquake registered in Colombia in the last decade” and that it was followed by two aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 4.8 on the Richter scale.

Small earthquakes, known locally as “temblores”, are common in central and western Colombia, but quakes above magnitude 6.0 are rare. In 1999, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake near the city of Armenia killed more than 1,100 people.

Colombia’s newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella said on Monday that he had personally taken charge of the government’s response to the emergency in San Jose del Palmar following the earthquake.