DHAKA: A strong 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Mexico and Guatemala on Monday killing at least three people including a newborn baby at a hospital and injuring dozens.

The quake, initially measured at a magnitude of 7.1, struck the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Chiapas state at about 1124 GMT at a depth of 60 kilometers (37 miles), the US Geological Survey said.

The epicenter was just two kilometers from the Mexican town of Puerto Madero, and 200 kilometers from Guatemala City, reports the NDTV.

About 10 minor aftershocks rattled the region, causing more panic and triggering landslides, and authorities warned the toll of dead and injured could rise as the scale of the tragedy became clear.

Two of the dead were in Mexico and a baby died in a hospital in Guatemala’s western border state of San Marcos when part of a ceiling caved in, Guatemala President Otto Perez told reporters.

Perez added that 35 people had been injured, two of them critically, and 70 homes had been reported damaged, half of them beyond repair.

In Mexico, a 51-year-old man died in the town of Huixtla, near the border with Guatemala, after a wall fell on him at his home, the Chiapas state civil protection department said.

A 74-year-old man perished in Mapastepec while four others were hurt in the town of 44,000, none of them seriously.

Authorities were assessing damage in other areas of Chiapas, one of the poorest states in Mexico.

‘It is possible that the number of injured could rise,’ Aragon said.

Buildings and highways were cracked, and mountain roads collapsed, Mexican authorities said. At the airport in Tapachula, ceilings caved in but flights were still operating.

BDST: 0938 HRS, JULY 8, 2014