A utility pole and fallen debris on a street in Uruapan City, Mexico, Sept. 22, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @fran_morenog84​​

Mexico City, September 22 (RHC)-- A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has struck Mexico, causing buildings to sway and leaving at least one person dead in the nation’s capital.

The earthquake struck early on Thursday shortly after 1 a.m. (06:00 GMT), just three days after a 7.6 magnitude quake shook western and central Mexico, killing two people.  Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said one woman died in a central neighbourhood when she fell down the stairs of her home. Residents huddled in the streets as seismic alarms blared.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday’s earthquake, like Monday’s, was centred in the western state of Michoacan near the Pacific coast. The epicentre was 46km (29 miles) southwest of Aguililla, Michoacan, at a depth of 24 km (15 miles).

Michoacan’s state government said the quake was felt throughout the state. It reported damage to a building in the city of Uruapan and landslides on the highway that connects Michoacan and Guerrero with the coast.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter it was an aftershock from Monday’s temblor and was also felt in the states of Colima, Jalisco and Guerrero.  The earthquakes have rattled an already jittery country.  A devastating 1985 temblor killed some 9,500 people in Mexico.