The Paez river disaster was caused by a rather superficial earthquake (with a 10 km deep epicentre, 6.4 on the Richter scale) and subsequent mudslide that destroyed the small town of Paez, located on the foothills of the Central Cordillera of the Andes in Cauca province in South-western Colombia, which took place on the 6th of June of 1994. It was estimated that ca 1,100 people, mostly from the Paez ethnia were killed in some 15 settlements on the Paez river basin, Cauca and Huila provinces, of which the homonymous town of Paez suffered 50% of the death toll, .