Nicaragua earthquake: Monster 6.2 tremor strikes off coast – panic over 'violent shaking'

There was panic across the South American country as it was hit by “violent shaking”. Twitter account EMSC revealed the news.

It tweeted: “M6.2 #earthquake (#sismo) strikes 89 km SW of #Managua (#Nicaragua) 18 min ago.”

The earthquake was so powerful that it shook buildings in the Costa Rican capital San Jose on Monday.

This came after the natural phenomenon, which was of 5.8-magnitude according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), struck off the coast of neighbouring Nicaragua.

There were no initial reports of damage, according to Reuters.

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“Our monitoring service identified a second report from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) which listed the quake at magnitude 5.7.”

It said that “based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake was probably felt by many people in the area of the epicentre”.

However, it claimed that “it should not have caused significant damage, other than objects falling from shelves, broken windows, etc”.

It struck the country just a day after its authoritarian leaders, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, appeared to have secured another five years in power.

In the early hours of yesterday, Mr Ortega, a one-time revolutionary who has governed continuously since 2007, declared victory after voting took place on Sunday.

Nicaragua’s supreme electoral council said he had received 75 percent of votes, with about half of the 1.3m ballots counted.

But there were allegations of vote-rigging – with US president Joe Biden branding the election as an undemocratic “pantomime”.

During a rare public appearance, the former Marxist guerrilla painted the election as a choice between the peace and the “terror” of the opposition.

However, critics said the election involved a crackdown on opposition leaders and was a “sham”.

The European Union said the anti-democratic election completed “the conversion of Nicaragua into an autocratic regime”

source: express.co.uk