This is the moment a six-month-old baby was rescued alongside her mother from the rubble of a collapsed building following a Colombian earthquake. 

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake tore through Colombia’s coffee-growing heartland early on Monday, killing at least 164 people. 

The quake reduced multi-story buildings to rubble in cities such as Pereira and Cali, and cracked apart one of the towers of a historic cathedral in the city of Manizales.

Extraordinary footage shows the baby being pulled from the wreckage of a building by a crowd of people. They promptly helped to extract the mother from the debris, who emerged covered in blood and dust.

Around 1,600 buildings have so far been reported as damaged or collapsed. Soldiers, rescue personnel and families picked through the rubble, removing and passing large pieces of concrete by hand down lines of volunteers. 

In one clip taken in an airport, petrified people were seen in the terminal trying to get to cover as the ceiling collapses around them. 

The whole building rattled around them, shaking off bits of the ceiling with every tremor. 

Another clip showed people screaming in fear as they ran away from a disintegrating building. 

The façade of the round building quickly began splitting after a deep crack developed. Whole parts of the building fell down, narrowly avoiding fleeing people.  

This is the moment a six-month-old baby was rescued alongside her mother from the rubble of a collapsed building following a Colombian earthquake

Extraordinary footage shows the baby being pulled from the wreckage of a building by a crowd of people. They promptly helped to extract the mother from the debris, who emerged covered in blood

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake tore through Colombia’s coffee-growing heartland early on Monday, killing at least 164 people

And in one particularly shocking video, a church’s spire was seen falling off and crumbling into rubble in front of a terrified crowd of onlookers.

Families were held back from the scene by local police as a cloud of dust filled the air.

Rescue efforts are currently underway across Colombia as emergency workers dug through collapsed buildings and flattened homes, amid expectations that the death toll from the country’s most powerful earthquake in decades could rise.

Emergency teams aided by police, soldiers and volunteers worked through the night with excavators and, at times, their bare hands, hunting for survivors beneath debris. 

In Cali, home to about 2.2 million people, at least 85 people were killed. Dozens of buildings were left leaning precariously or destroyed outright, forcing residents into the streets.

Several of the top floors of one of the city’s hospitals – some dedicated to paediatric care – collapsed upon themselves, leaving some patients trapped and forcing some 600 others to be tended to on a street strewn with rubble. 

Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident volunteering with rescue teams, said on Monday afternoon that her group had freed seven people from a collapsed building, but four others and a dog remained trapped.

‘A moment ago there was scratching but now we can’t hear anything, we still have faith that the dog is alive and we can get these people out,’ Garcia said. 

The quake reduced multi-story buildings to rubble in cities across the country 

Rescue efforts are currently underway across Colombia

Residents and rescue workers carry out search, rescue and evacuation operations after a powerful earthquake struck Colombia

Sculptures are surrounded by debris at a partially collapsed church at Palermo neighborhood after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Colombia on August 10, 2026 in Tamesis, Colombia

In Pereira, capital of the hard-hit state of Risaralda, authorities reported 66 dead

‘We need people with sticks and spades, the more people lending a hand the better.

Dana Carolina Zamora posted an image of her missing 60-year-old uncle, Miguel Ángel Zamora, cradling his dog. The farmer was living in a rural area of El Cairo, not far from the epicenter of the quake in San Jose Del Palmar.

Local authorities said 80% of El Cairo, a town of about 7,000 people, was damaged. Zamora said she worried because her uncle lived in a traditional but fragile house made of sticks and mud.

‘We are afraid. We hope that is not the case, that he is all right and that it is only a communication failure. But we haven’t heard anything from him,’ Zamora said.

In Pereira, capital of the hard-hit state of Risaralda, authorities reported 66 dead.

The city also bore some of the most visible destruction, with entire residential blocks reduced to piles of concrete and twisted steel. 

Another 13 people died in Choco, the rural province closest to the quake’s epicentre. 

Choco is one of the poorest and most neglected regions of Colombia, often beset by warring armed groups. 

Volunteers help with debris removal at a collapsed building in downtown Pereira after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Colombia on August 10, 2026

People wearing face masks walk through dust and debris following a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Pereira, Colombia, on August 10, 2026

People remove a refrigerator from a damaged home in Pereira on August 10, 2026 

Much of Choco is accessible only by boat, through the jungle or by airplane. Little was known about the extent of the damage there.

De la Espriella travelled to Choco’s capital, Quibdo, on Monday night to assess the damage and announced he had mobilized ‘the entire military and police apparatus’ to respond, deploying engineers, rescue workers and search dogs. He announced rental subsidies for those whose homes were damaged while they undergo repairs.

‘Choco will never again be the ‘land of the forgotten,” he said. 

President Abelardo De La Espriella, who assumed power just days ago, said 35 people died in Cali alone, while 188 were missing. 

He said 1,000 members of the security forces would be deployed to the city by dawn, following reports of looting. Cali, as well as Pereira, implemented curfews on Monday night.

‘Our intention is to cooperate in any way necessary. Here, there are no distinctions or ideological divisions when it comes to defending our people or showing solidarity,’ De La Espriella told journalists on Monday evening.  

The earthquake presents the first major test for de la Espriella, who was sworn in as Colombia’s leader on Friday. De la Espriella is a divisive figure because of his pledge of an all-out crackdown on criminal groups.

The disaster has drawn comparisons to a deadly 1999 earthquake that devastated the same coffee-growing region, killing more than 1,000 people, as well as to catastrophic quakes that killed more than 6,300 in neighbouring Venezuela in June.

Residents and rescue workers carry out search, rescue and evacuation operations after a powerful earthquake struck Colombia on August 10, 2026

A man rests near the site of earthquake damage following a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Pereira, Colombia, on August 10, 2026

People gather in the streets after a powerful earthquake struck Colombia on August 10, 2026

The EU said this morning that it would provide funding and help to support rescue operations in Colombia. 

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X: ‘The EU has mobilised Copernicus, our satellite service, to support rescue and relief operations. We are providing funding to support the response, including through the Red Cross.

‘We have also activated the EU’s crisis consular assistance mechanism to support EU citizens caught in the disaster.’

The US State Department, meanwhile, announced it would provide $15.5million (£11.5million) for emergency shelter, food and other aid. Governments across Latin America also lined up to help.