7.3 magnitude earthquake off El Salvador coast: USGS

SAN SALVADOR: A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Central America late Monday, killing at least one person and prompting a brief tsunami warning.

Electricity was cut off in parts of El Salvador and beyond and walls crumbled, but there were no reports of widespread damage.

The quake hit in the Pacific Ocean 170 kilometers (105 miles) southeast of the capital San Salvador, at a depth of 70 kilometers (44 miles), the US Geological Survey said.

The earthquake´s magnitude was initially given as 7.4 but then lowered to 7.3

The rumbling of the earth was felt all along the Central American coast, from Guatemala in the north to Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the south and inland to Honduras.

In El Salvador, a man died when an electrical pylon fell on him in the city of San Miguel, its mayor Wilfredo Salgado told YSKL radio.

"It was strong when it started to rumble, and it would not stop. My family just prayed and asked God for it to stop," Maria Etelvina Deras, who lives in Usulutan, 110 kilometers southeast of the capital, told the radio station.