PENONOMÉ (Panama) — A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Panama yesterday, causing buildings and roads to collapse in the center of the country but no immediate reports of casualties.

The shallow tremor was felt across the Central American nation of around 4.5 million people, according to the National Civil Protection System.

It lasted for around a minute. In Panama City, about 200 kilometres from the epicentre, there were scenes of panic as people rushed to evacuate from the city’s emblematic skyscrapers.

“I was scared because the shaking was very strong and prolonged. Heavy objects like dressers, the bed, and all the kitchen items were shaking,” Salomon Andion, 46, told AFP after evacuating his 15-story building for the second time following aftershocks.

A video widely shared on social media showed water falling from the rooftop pool of a building that’s over 20 stories tall.

Another showed a bridge over the Panama Canal shaking violently but remaining upright as vehicles travelled across it.

“We are facing a major disaster,” President Jose Raul Mulino said, adding that some roads had “completely collapsed.”

“It was horrible, like nothing we ever experienced. My daughter was trapped in school,” Juana Alveo, a 38-year-old cashier at a store in the city of Penonome in central Cocle province told AFP.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 1756 GMT with an epicentre 10 kilometres from the small town of Pitaloza Arriba in central Herrera province.

The USGS initially estimated it to be a magnitude-8.0 quake before revising it to 7.7.

A tsunami warming was issued for the eastern Pacific but later lifted.