By Nelson Bocanegra, Julia Symmes Cobb and Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - At least 77 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia early on Monday, knocking down buildings across several cities and leaving others trapped in the rubble.
The quake struck just days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela
in June.
The 7.4 magnitude quake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles) near San Jose del Palmar, in Choco, a sparsely populated province on Colombia's Pacific Coast, but was felt in major cities nationwide.
"Significant casualties and damage are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread," the agency warned.
The highest reported death toll was in the western province of Risaralda in Colombia's coffee-growing region, where Governor Juan Diego Patino, speaking by phone to Caracol Television, reported 42 fatalities.
In the province's capital of Pereira, social media images showed a building with a cracked facade crash to the ground, sending up a dark cloud of dust and debris as onlookers on the street darted away.
The impact also toppled one of the towers atop a Gothic-style cathedral in Manizales, and forced nurses in Cali to wheel patients outside in hospital beds, social media and television images showed.
In nearby Manizales, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said three people were killed.
One person died in Buenaventura, Colombia's main Pacific port, when a building collapsed, trapping several people, Mayor Ligia del Carmen Cordoba said.
People remained trapped in Cali, one of Colombia's largest cities, after more than two dozen structures collapsed, Mayor Alejandro Eder said. He added that the city had asked authorities in Bogota and Medellin to send disaster teams to support rescue efforts.
"At this point, two people have already been rescued alive, one elderly woman and one young girl. There are more people trapped," Eder told Blu Radio. "We have at least 12 critical points and 25 collapsed structures that we are responding to."
Choco Governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi said there were injuries and significant damage in Quibdo, the provincial capital, and warned residents about aftershocks.
LAND OF EARTHQUAKES AND LANDSLIDES
Smaller earthquakes are not uncommon in Colombia, which is crisscrossed by three ranges of the Andean mountains. However, it is landslides which have historically been the deadliest natural disasters in the country, with the Armero disaster in 1985 killing some 25,000 people.
Cities in the country's coffee region, including Armenia and Pereira, suffered a devastating 6.2 magnitude quake in 1999, which killed more than 1,000 people.
De La Espriella, a right-wing politician who has never before held elected office, said in a video filmed while flying to Bogota that he was suspending his planned activities to lead emergency coordination efforts out of the capital.
Colombia's civil aviation authority said flights were suspended at airports in Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura while inspectors checked for structural damage.
The U.S. tsunami warning system said there was no tsunami threat after the quake, which occurred at 7:34 local time (1234 GMT), was felt in nine departments and all 32 departmental capitals.
Reuters witnesses in the Venezuelan border state of Tachira and the central-western city of Barquisimeto reported the quake had been felt there.
Venezuela was hit by devastating twin earthquakes in June, which killed more than 6,000 people, mostly on the coast near the capital, Caracas.
(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Luis Jaime Acosta, Julia Symmes Cobb and Fabiola Aramburo; Additional reporting by Yury Garcia in Quito, Writing by Kylie Madry and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by David Holmes and Paul Simao)
