The 1972 Nicaragua earthquake occurred at 12:29 a.m. local time (06:29 UTC) on Saturday, December 23 near Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. It had a magnitude of 6.2, with the epicenter 28 kilometers northeast of the city centre, and a depth of about 5 kilometers. Within an hour after the main shock, two aftershocks, one of magnitude 5.0 and the other 5.2, occurred at 1:18 a.m. and 1:20 a.m. The earthquake caused widespread casualties among Managua's residents: 6,000 were killed, 20,000 were injured and over 250,000 were left homeless.