Tremor shakes Mexico City on quake anniversary

A powerful earthquake has rocked Mexico's western coast on the same day the country marks the anniversaries of two devastating quakes which killed thousands of people.

The 7.6 magnitude quake hit the coastal states of Michoacan and Colima shortly after 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT).

So far, one person is known to have been killed, officials said.

But the US officials issued a tsunami warning for parts of Mexico's western coastline on Monday night.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said that waves reaching one to three metres (three to nine feet) above the tide level could hit coastal areas overnight.

The tremors originated at a depth of 15km (9.32 miles), near the town of La Placita de Morelos.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued in Mexico City after Monday's quake, but Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that so far there had been no reports of damage.

It came just an hour after the city had held emergency disaster drills. Local resident Karina Suare told news agency AFP that strong tremors had hit the city and said they "felt terrible".

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted that he had spoken with Michoacan's Governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla and been assured that there were only reports of "material damage" to the region.

Earlier, Mr López Obrador had taken part in a flag raising ceremony to commemorate the victims of the 1985 and 2017 quakes.

Some 370 people were killed in the city of Puebla in central Mexico five years ago after it was rocked by a huge quake. The city, which is Mexico's fourth largest, was hit by a 7.1 magnitude quake which also saw more than 40 buildings collapse.

And in 1985, some 5,000 people were killed when tremors hitting a magnitude of 8.0 hit the capital, Mexico City. A total of 412 buildings collapsed and the event is said to have caused between $3 and $4bn (£2.63 and $3.5bn) worth of damage.

Ernesto Lanzetta, a local business owner in Mexico City, eluded to the conspicuous nature of the date, telling Reuters news agency that "there's something about the 19th".