A man in his boat is seen near "El Canal" Neighborhood before Hurricane Otto hits Bluefields, Nicaragua on November 24, 2016 (AFP Photo/Inti Ocon)

San Salvador (AFP) - A Pacific Ocean earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude shook El Salvador and Nicaragua on Thursday, officials said, an hour after a powerful hurricane hit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast. Emergency services in El Salvador said on Twitter it had received no reports of damage at a national level, but urged those living along the country's Pacific coast to withdraw up to 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) away from the shore. The 7.0 magnitude quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.2, was very shallow at 10.3 kilometers (6.4 miles) below the seabed, which would have amplified its effect. Salvadoran authorities issued a tsunami alert as a precaution after the tremor, which struck around 75 miles off the coast of El Salvador, at a depth of 20 miles beneath the Pacific Ocean, according to the US Geological Survey. Jorge Torres / EPA

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that waves of up to 3 feet could hit the Pacific coasts of Nicaragua and El Salvador after the quake, but it later said that available data showed the threat had passed. The quake was felt in several countries across the region and struck just as the category 2 Hurricane Otto descended near the southeastern coast of Nicaragua, where a state of emergency has been declared. “We were scared.”

Earlier on Thursday, the Category 2 Hurricane Otto hit land near the southeastern coast of Nicaragua, where thousands had already been evacuated away from vulnerable coastal areas and into shelters.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurs off the coast of El Salvador with the potential to cause a tsunami. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega declares a state of emergency because of the quake and Hurricane Otto.