(NBC News) The most powerful earthquake to hit Mexico in a century struck off the country’s southern coast early Friday, killing at least six people and prompting warnings it could trigger tsunami waves up to 10 feet high. The huge earthquake, of a preliminary magnitude measured at 8.1, struck 87km southwest of the town of Pijijiapan, on the southern Mexican coast, at 4:49 GMT, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). This quake, which prompted warnings of possible tsunami waves up to 10 feet high, was stronger than the 1985 tremor that killed more than 5,000 people in Mexico's capital, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said. The Mexican president said there had been at least 62 aftershocks and warned his countrymen to brace themselves for one that could hit 7.2 on the Richer scale could hit in the next 24 hours. Pena Nieto also said that serious damage had been caused and that 1 million customers initially had been without power following the quake, but that electricity had been restored to 800,000 of them. The epicentre of the quake was off the coast of Chiapas, a state in southern Mexico, but the rumblings rocked the Mexican capital more than 600 miles away, causing electricity failures, and reports of sporadic damage. Residents fled buildings, many in their pajamas, and gathered in frightened groups in the street. It was a different story in Oaxaca, where Gov. Manuel Velasco said that three people were killed in San Cristobal, including two women who died in San Cristobal when a house and a wall collapsed. The Mexican government ordered schools closed in the capital on Friday so that school infrastructure could be inspected after the quake. Two children died in neighbouring Tabasco state, including an infant who perished when hospital electricity failed and the ventilator turned off, said Gov. “Homes, schools and hospitals have been damaged.”

Tabasco Governor Arturo Nunez said two children died in his state. One of them was killed when a wall collapsed, and the other was a baby who died in a children's hospital that lost electricity, cutting off the infant's ventilator. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 11:49 p.m. Thursday local time and its epicenter was 165 kilometers (102 miles) west of Tapachula in Chiapas not far from Guatemala. Meanwhile, small tsunami waves of 3.3 feet washed ashore the city of Salina Cruz while 2.3-foot waves were measured at the resort town of Huatulco, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Earlier, the U.S. Tsunami Warning System said hazardous tsunami waves were possible on the Pacific coasts of several Central American countries, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras. In neighboring Guatamala, President Jimmy Morales said there had been some damage an unconfirmed reports that one person had died, according to the AP. "It's a very flat fault, so it's a place that has big earthquakes relatively often because of that."
Tsunami waves are reported in Mexico from the earthquake late yesterday with the biggest wave measuring 2.3 feet (0.70 m).