Deadly earthquake hits Colombia

**Will Chalk** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Will Chalk, and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 11th of August, these are our main stories. A state of emergency is declared in Colombia after a powerful earthquake kills more than 130 people. A law has been approved in Turkey aimed at resolving decades of conflict with the Kurdish militant group, the PKK.
Also in this podcast.

**Wang Zhuang** (0:26)
I've spent my life savings. The total damage is close to 74,000 US dollars. I cannot work. I cannot sleep.

**Will Chalk** (0:37)
We have a special report on the crippling cost of sham marriages in China. Are humans and elephants getting a bit too close for comfort in Zambia?
And what are dogs thinking when we smile at them?

**Raul Hernandez Perez** (0:48)
The dog brain has certain capacity that makes them really good at understanding others.

**Will Chalk** (0:57)
We start with this.

**Angelica Avila** (0:58)
I was in a hotel at the moment. It was moving quite strongly and everyone was screaming. And then as it stopped, I could look through the window and saw some like dust coming out of the neighboring buildings.

**Will Chalk** (1:12)
That's Angelica Avila, who was in the Colombian city of Manizales when a powerful earthquake struck.

**Angelica Avila** (1:18)
One of the cathedrals towers bent over.
Like the situation is a bit strange. We don't know like exactly what to do. And the flights are canceled. The airport is collapsed.

**Will Chalk** (1:35)
More than 130 people are now known to have been killed. The president's declared a state of emergency and a major search and rescue operation has started for those buried under the rubble of dozens of collapsed buildings.
Cali, 200 kilometres south of the epicentre, is one of the worst affected cities. Its mayor, Alejandro Eder, told the BBC the first 48 hours are critical for finding survivors.

**Alejandro Eder** (1:58)
We're still searching around the city. It's a very large city and it was a very strong quake, but the city held up quite well. That kind of makes it a little bit harder to find the victims and the collapsed buildings because it's kind of like finding needles in a haystack right now.
Our teams are very well trained. We actually sent our search and rescue team. We just sent it to Venezuela. So they have very recent experience in these types of events.

**Will Chalk** (2:25)
The earthquake was felt as far away as the capital Bogota, where our reporter Jose Carlos Coeto is based.

**Jose Carlos Coeto** (2:32)
It was around 7.3 in the morning local time. I was in a taxi and then the car started moving to swing to both sides. And then the driver asked me to leave and to get safe for both of us. And then we could feel the ground shaking beneath our feet while building trees and traffic lights swayed.
This region is probably with the highest seismic activity in Colombia. All of this part that is somehow crossed by the Andean mountains, major damages as those that we're seeing in cities like Cali or Pereira. Yeah.

**Will Chalk** (3:07)
And what are we hearing out of those cities? What's the picture like there?

**Jose Carlos Coeto** (3:11)
Well, it's been hard to get the information because communications have been down.
They have been switching on and off during the whole day.
Also, because it's difficult to get there, the airports have ceased their operation. They were re-established shortly early in the afternoon in Cali, but in Pereira, the airport is not functioning. It has damages as well. I'm getting there by road. The roads are limited because it's a very geographically difficult area surrounded by mountains. So it hasn't been easy for the media to get there. It hasn't been easy for the rescue teams to get there. So getting the full picture is difficult now. And when all these factors start to become more clear, people are fearing that the death toll can be higher.

**Will Chalk** (4:01)
Yeah, and fresh in everyone's minds will be what happened in Venezuela earlier this year as well.

**Jose Carlos Coeto** (4:08)
Yes, because, well, firstly, because it's closed and there are many human and cultural connections between Venezuela and Colombia. There are many Venezuelans living here. And it was very recent, that traumatic event in Venezuela that is still affecting the people on the ground.
For now, the two situations are no comparable when it comes to the magnitude. First of all, because Colombia hasn't been suffering the same economic crisis that Venezuela has over the last decade. But let's say that the infrastructure and the rescue teams are better prepared to respond to these sort of situations. And also because of the conditions, because of the features of the earthquake, they are not the same as it was in Venezuela. It was a twin earthquake with many aftershocks. Those aftershocks haven't been felt in the same way in Colombia, having more than 100 dead people. It's a serious situation, so it's not expected to reach the level of thousands, more than 6,000 that Venezuela has already.