Maltese mother details terrifying experience of Panama earthquake

For three seconds, I could tell something would happen, then the room started to shake, a Maltese mother on holiday in Panama told MaltaToday after Friday's earthquake hit the central American country.

"Literally three seconds later, the room started shaking, and the windows felt like they were going to break," Cherise said.

Just prior to the earthquake, she was on the phone with her mother, who witnessed it on the other side of the world through the phone.  “All I could do was hold my daughter until it stopped,” she said of that terrifying moment.

She said a plant fell, doors opened and closed, and the television looked like it was about to come off the wall.

The earthquake struck southern Panama at 12:56pm, shaking buildings in the capital, and sending hundreds of people onto the streets.

According to the US Geological Survey the 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes toppled buildings near the epicentre and prompted evacuations across the Central American country. Seismologists at the University of Panama recorded dozens of aftershocks, including ones measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre first warned of waves along Panama's coast but later said the threat had passed. Panama's civil protection agency, Sinaproc, told ABC News it was still evaluating the damage.

Cherise was staying in a residential area on the 50th floor while her husband went to get coffee at a shop about two minutes away.

He also spoke to MaltaToday, recalling how he had phoned Cherise while running back to the building and told her to start heading down the stairs while he came up.

Cherise recalled grabbing her bag and carrying her daughter down the stairs. She recalled seeing "cement dust" down the staircase.

On the 27th floor, five men stopped her at an open door. She said they told her the lift was safer than the stairs and put her inside.

Once they reached the reception, her phone had no signal, leaving her unable to contact her husband, who was trying to go upstairs.  He recalled the receptionist blocked the door and did not allow him to go up.

He said he had felt something was wrong while at the coffee shop, but those around him weren’t aware, and he sprinted to the building in about 30 seconds.

Building management kept residents outside for an hour or two. Cherise recalled thousands of people gathering as far from the skyscrapers as possible, including people with disabilities and newborn babies less than a week old.

The family were on the coast, between the skyscrapers and the Pacific, while the tsunami alert was in place. They later drove about 20 minutes to a seven-storey hotel and asked for the lowest floor available.

She estimated there had been about 100 aftershocks. A later tremor at about 11:20pm made the room shake again, slowly at first, like the main quake.

Panama's President José Raúl Mulino said his entire government was mobilising in response to the earthquake, adding: "What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder."

Panama City's international airport, a major hub for the region, was temporarily closed. Several flights were diverted to other airports as a precaution, according to the Civil Aeronautics Authority.

The earthquake has left a total of 27 injured with several buildings including a cathedral collapsing.