Stunning videos show terrified people screaming in the streets and swinging in a cable car in Mexico during a deadly 7.0-magnitude earthquake — with the sky lit blue in a natural disaster that locals likened to the Apocalypse.
Videos from Tuesday night’s quake show a rare and terrifying natural light show, which many people shared on Twitter with the hashtag Apocalipsis, the Spanish for the biblical term denoting the end of the world.
Many were taken in Mexico City, much of which lost power during the quake that hit more than 200 miles away in the beach resort Acapulco.
The dramatic cable car footage shows people stuck in a cable car that swings around as the sky repeatedly lights up around them.
Another clip seen more than 1 million times shows people hugging and screaming in the street, as one man struggles to stay standing even while taking a wide stance. Car alarms repeatedly blare, adding to the sense of doom.
A wild video taken during the natural disaster also appears to show smoke rising from a skyscraper in Acapulco as a siren wails and lights flash across the night sky.
Meanwhile, others huddled together in the street, hugging and screaming amid the fireworks-like display — as some declared the end was nigh.
“Apocalipsis is coming… #prayformexico,” one frightened observer tweeted.
One video also showed the cloudy night sky lit by lightning as water sloshed from a hillside swimming pool in the city made famous by Hollywood stars in the 1950s.
In another jaw-dropping scene, light fixtures inside a family’s apartment are shown swinging violently as objects crash down from shelves — and a pet cat tries to make a break for it.
Residents also showed clips of smashed ornaments inside homes shaken in the quake, along with bottles smashed in a supermarket.
Other footage shows a seven-story building tagged as being in Mexico City clearly swaying during the quake, which killed at least one person and damaged buildings, but did not appear to cause widespread destruction, authorities said in initial reports.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) initially measured it at a magnitude of 7.4 but later downgraded it to a 7.0.
The quake was relatively shallow, just 12 miles below the surface, which would have amplified the shaking effect, the USGS said.
Strange lights reported during earthquakes around the world are often imbued with religious meaning by those who witness them. There is little scientific consensus on what causes the luminosity, or even if it is a real phenomenon.
Theories for what researchers call earthquake lights (EQL) include friction between moving rocks creating electrical activity. Similar lights were reported by some people during a destructive quake in Mexico in 2017.
Skeptics said locals may have witnessed a run-of-the-mill form of naturally occurring lightning.
“Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL,” the USGS says on its website.
“Some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence,” the USGS said.
With Post wires
