A powerful earthquake rattled Guatemala and parts of El Salvador Wednesday sending terrified residents rushing into the streets for safety and causing traffic chaos in Guatemala City.

Land slides were reported in the southwest province of Escuintla and phone service was interrupted in some areas

According to the U.S. Geological Survey the earthquake struck at 1:29 p.m. local time (7.29pm GMT), had a magnitude of 6.8 and was centered in the Pacific Ocean occurring at a depth of about 65 km.

Officials said the earth shook for 22 seconds, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or serious damage.
Guatemala's seismology institute said the quake lasted 49 seconds.

Only minor damage to homes was reported, mostly in the Guatemala’s rural area, according to Francois de la Roche, Latin America's director for humanitarian and emergency affairs for the aid organization World Vision.

"I didn't notice it at first but then felt this long, swaying motion back and forward," de la Roche said in a telephone interview from Antigua, Guatemala.

Neighbor El Salvador felt it strongly as well. The same scary picture could be seen there with people running into the streets in the capital of San Salvador and throwing traffic into chaos.
Luckily, Red Cross as well as El Salvador's Interior Ministry said there were no reports of fatalities, damages or injuries.

"The earthquake was too deep to generate a tsunami hazard," said for Reuters Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

"We don't think there is going to be a dangerous Pacific-wide tsunami but we will monitor the situation," said David Walsh, an oceanographer at the warning center.

The region is liable to earthquakes. Guatemala’s heaviest earthquake struck on February 4, 1976 killing approximately 23,000 people.

It was a 7.5 centered about 160 km northeast of Guatemala City. Cities throughout the country suffered damage, and most adobe type structures in the outlying areas of Guatemala City were completely destroyed, leaving thousands homeless. Some of the areas went without electricity and communication for days. The main shock was been followed by thousands of aftershocks, some of the larger ones causing additional loss of life and damage.