The quake hit at 4:06 am (0906 GMT), according to Julian Villarroel, director of Colombia's Institute of Geology and Mining, who gave the epicenter as the village of Puerto Pizarro in the jungle department of Choco, on Colombia's Pacific coast.

Seismic authorities in the United States and France measured the quake at seven on the Richter scale.

The US Geological Survey said the epicenter was 95 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of the coastal city of Buenaventura, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

The quake was also reported by the Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg, France.

Villarroel said authorities were evaluating damage along the Pacific coast where the quake was most strongly felt.

The director of the Red Cross in Choco, Manuel Maturana, said two homes had been destroyed but no one was killed in Puerto Pizzaro.

The quake was felt in Cali, Colombia's third largest city.

Cali's government secretary, Miguel Yusti, said some buildings were damaged, including a clinic and a maternity ward that might be evacuated.

The region has been hit by a half-dozen quakes of magnitude six or more in the last 15 years; one of them, measuring seven, struck in November 1991.

Colombia's coasts have been drenched by torrential rains for more than 40 days, leaving 19 people dead and 34 others injured.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.