London Defender

The Daily Mirror of the Great Britain

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

There was panic across the Central American country as it was hit by “violent shaking” throughout last night and this morning. 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 also shook buildings in the Costa Rican capital San Jose.

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

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

READ MORE: ‘This is why UK doesn’t trust EU’ Fury as Germany funds China warships

“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 leader Daniel Ortega 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 election completed “the conversion of Nicaragua into an autocratic regime”.