A 6.5 magnitude earthquake shakes Mexico City and Acapulco, a popular tourist spot

A strong earthquake shook southern and central Mexico on Friday, killing at least one person and injuring several. Officials said there did not appear to be any major damage from the earthquake.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5. Its epicenter was near the city of San Marcos in the southern state of Guerrero, near the resort city of Acapulco on the Pacific coast.

It occurred at a depth of 21.7 miles, 2.5 miles northwest of Rancho Viejo, Guerrero. The earthquake was felt more than 400 kilometers away, in Mexico City.

Residents and tourists in Mexico City and Acapulco took to the streets when the shaking began.

Karen Gómez, a 47-year-old office worker who lives on the 13th floor of an apartment building in Mexico City, told Agence France-Presse that a siren woke her up.

“I woke up terrified. The alert on my cell phone said it was a strong earthquake,” she said.

The Civil Protection Agency reported several landslides around Acapulco and on other roads in the state.

Local officials said a 60-year-old man in Mexico City died from his injuries after falling while evacuating his second-floor apartment in the capital, News reported.

The mayor of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, confirmed the death in a statement published on social networks. In a separate statement on social media, he said at least 12 people were injured in the earthquake.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, whose first news conference of the new year was interrupted by the earthquake, said she spoke with Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado, who told her that no serious damage had been reported.

José Raymundo Díaz Taboada, a doctor and human rights defender who lives on one of the hills surrounding Acapulco, said he heard a loud roar and all the dogs in the neighborhood began barking.

“At that moment the seismic alert sounded on my cell phone,” he said, “and then the shaking began to feel strong with a lot of noise.”

He said the shaking was lighter than some previous earthquakes and that he had packed a backpack with essentials so he would be ready to go as the aftershocks continued.

He said he had not been able to communicate with some friends who live on the Costa Chica, southeast of Acapulco, because communications were cut off.

Mexico is located between five tectonic plates and is one of the countries with the highest seismic activity in the world.

In January 2025, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook a region of southwestern Mexico. The tremor occurred about five miles from Coalcomán de Vázquez Pallares, a municipality of about 20,000 residents, about 600 miles west of Mexico City. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 53 miles.

In 1985, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake centered on the Pacific coast devastated much of central and southern Mexico, killing thousands of people and causing severe damage to Mexico City.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake on September 19, 2017 killed 369 people, most of them in the capital.

Exactly five years later, on the same date in 2022central Mexico was hit by another earthquake, just hours after millions of people participated in a mock earthquake safety exercise. The repercussions of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake extended up to 2,400 kilometers to the north, where four foot high waves began to churn inside a Death Valley cave called Devils Hole.