Nearly five days after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, rescuers were still racing to free survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings on Friday, as the official death toll climbed to at least 288 and authorities grappled with the scale of a disaster affecting hundreds of thousands of people across fifteen departments.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck shortly after 7:30am on Monday, with its epicentre near San José del Palmar in Chocó department, one of Colombia's poorest regions. It toppled apartment blocks, schools and hospitals across a wide swathe of the country — from the Pacific port city of Buenaventura to the inland cities of Cali, Pereira and Manizales. By Friday afternoon, Colombia's National Disaster Risk Management Unit reported 288 dead, more than 4,000 injured, 202 missing and 354 people rescued. Some 80,744 homes had been damaged and 12,504 destroyed, with Cali, Pereira, Quibdó, Manizales and Armenia remaining on red alert. The disaster is being described as the strongest earthquake to hit Colombia this century and represents the first major test for President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office just days before the quake struck.

In Pereira, the capital of Risaralda department in Colombia's coffee-growing region and one of the hardest-hit cities, President De la Espriella described the situation as