A tourist is assisted after being evacuated from a hotel during a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Acapulco, Mexico, on Jan. 2, 2026. Francisco ROBLES /AFP via Getty Images

A strong earthquake rattled southern and central Mexico on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring several. Officials said there did not appear to be major damage from the quake.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5. Its epicenter was near the town of San Marcos in the southern state of Guerrero, near the Pacific coastal resort town of Acapulco.

It occurred at a depth of 21.7 miles, 2.5 miles north-northwest of Rancho Viejo, Guerrero. The quake was felt more than 250 miles away in Mexico City.

Residents and tourists in Mexico City and Acapulco rushed into the streets when the shaking began.

Karen Gomez, a 47-year-old office worker living on the 13th floor of an apartment building in Mexico City, told Agence France-Presse that a siren woke her up.

"I woke up in terror. My cellphone alert said it was a powerful earthquake," she said.

The civil defense agency reported various landslides around Acapulco and on other highways in the state.

Local officials said a 60-year-old man in Mexico City died of his injuries after falling while evacuating his second-floor apartment in the capital, AFP reported. Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada confirmed the death in a statement posted on social media. In a separate statement on social media, she said at least 12 people were injured in the quake.

The second death was reported nearby in Guerrero. Gov. Evelyn Salgado told reporters a 50-year-old woman died after her home collapsed.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, whose first press briefing of the new year was interrupted by the quake, said she spoke with Salgado, who initially told her there was no serious damage reported.

José Raymundo Díaz Taboada, a doctor and human rights defender who lives on one of the peaks ringing Acapulco, said he heard a strong rumbling noise and all the neighborhood dogs began barking.

"In that moment the seismic alert went off on my cellphone," he said, "and then the shaking began to feel strong with a lot of noise."

He said the shaking was lighter than in some previous quakes and he had prepared a backpack of essentials to be ready to leave as the aftershocks continued.

He said he had been unable to reach some friends who live along the Costa Chica, southeast of Acapulco, because communications were cut.

Mexico is situated between five tectonic plates and is one of the world's most seismically active countries.

In January 2025, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook a region of southwest Mexico. The tremor was about five miles from Coalcoman de Vazquez Pallares, a municipality of around 20,000 people, about 372 miles west of Mexico City. The quake struck at a depth of 53 miles.

In 1985, an 8.1 magnitude quake centered on the Pacific coast ravaged much of central and southern Mexico, killing thousands and causing severe damage in Mexico City.

A 7.1-magnitude quake on Sept. 19, 2017, killed 369 people, most of them in the capital.

Exactly five years later, on the same date in 2022, central Mexico was hit by another quake, just hours after millions of people had taken part in a mock earthquake safety exercise. The repercussions of the 7.6 magnitude quake extended as far as 1,500 miles north, where four-foot-tall waves began churning inside a Death Valley cave called Devils Hole.

Source