At least two deaths are being blamed on a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that was centered in Baja California, Mexico and felt all over Southern California on Easter Sunday, rocking high rise buildings from San Diego to Los Angeles.
Both deaths occurred in Mexico, officials said. One man died when his home collapsed on him, according to Baja California state Civil Protection Director Alfredo Escobedo. The man's home was very close to the quake's epicenter, just outside Mexicali.
This home in Mexicali collapsed from the force of Easter Sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake.
A second man was killed when he panicked as the ground shook, ran into the street and was struck by a car.
According to Escobedo, there were reports of people trapped in collapsed homes in Mexicali and rescue teams from nearby Tijuana were called in to help.
There are no reports of U.S. deaths or injuries. The quake struck about 6 miles below the earth's surface at 3:40 p.m. PT Sunday, about 110 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
After examining data, seismologists upgraded the size of Sunday's 25-second quake from a magnitude 6.9 to 7.2, according to Dr. Lucy Jones of Caltech.
"This is the largest earthquake since the [7.3 magnitude] Landers earthquake of 1992," Jones said, "A 7.2 is going to happen over a pretty long fault, probably close to 50 miles long."
Scientists believe the quake originated on the Laguna Salada fault, which has not produced a major temblor in more than a century, according to preliminary data.
The last time the fault unleashed a similar-sized quake was in 1892.
It has since produced occasional magnitude 5 earthquakes. According to reports, the force from Sunday's temblor caused high-rise buildings in San Diego to sway back and forth around 30 seconds before rocking high-rise buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
Caltech officials reported that over 20 million people felt shaking related to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
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