A 7.2 earthquake in the Ritcher scale struck El Salvador at 12:43 p.m. at a depth of 33 kilometers, some 96 miles southwest of Puerto Triunfo, El Salvador, and was felt in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala. No injuries or damage have been reported, the Salvadoran Environment and Natural Resources Ministry said.

The Nicaraguan government issued a tsunami alert for the country’s entire Pacific coast after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck at 12:45 pm on Thursday but it was discarded due to the nature of the movement.

People evacuated buildings across El Salvador as a precaution against collapses.

In Guatemala, where the temblor was felt across the country, seismographs registered the earthquake’s magnitude at 6.9, but officials said there were no reports yet of injuries or damage.

Guatemala, like its neighbors in Central America, regularly experiences earthquakes caused by shifts in the Earth’s tectonic plates. EFE