A swarm of earthquakes hit southern El Salvador on Sunday, May 6, 2018, damaging nearly 200 homes and producing several small landslides. There are no reports of deaths or serious injuries. The first quake measured M4.5 on the Richter scale. It hit at 04:04 UTC and was followed by 9 more quakes with magnitudes ranging from 4.3 to 5.6 and depths between 4.4 and 10 km (2.7 to 6.2 miles). The sequence had three M5+ quakes and ended with M5.6 at 19:02 UTC, at the time considered as the mainshock.
The Associated Press quoted the civil defense director Jorge Melendez saying that 11 homes were destroyed and considerable damage was done to 180 more. “Most of the structures affected were made of bahareque, a material composed of cane or sticks mixed with mud and straw,” Melendez said, adding that one of the quakes produced landslides on a highway leading to Playa El Cuco, one of the most visited tourist beaches in the area.
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