A major earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday, unleashing panic as it damaged scores of buildings and caused homes in the capital to bounce like "trampolines".

Office workers fled into the street when the 7.4-magnitude quake shook Mexico City for more than a minute. Cell phone lines went down, buildings were evacuated, traffic snarled and the stock exchange had to suspend trading early.

The governor of the southwestern state of Guerrero, Angel Aguirre, said he had received reports of 500 homes damaged, with some of them knocked down, but he gave no more details.

The tremor was one of the strongest since the devastating 8.1-magnitude earthquake of 1985, which killed thousands in Mexico City.

No deaths were reported on Tuesday and the quake caused no major disruptions to air travel or to oil installations, but it scared many residents.

Martha Suarez, an Argentine living in the capital's Roma neighborhood said she had never known anything like it.

A resident evades rubble after an earthquake, in Oaxaca March 20, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

"My TV set fell over, the building felt like it was on a trampoline. This one was like no other I have felt before," Suarez said, holding her little dog close.

Emergency services said around 150 houses were damaged in Ometepec near the epicenter of the quake in Guerrero state, which is home of popular Pacific beach resort Acapulco. Officials could not confirm the higher number mentioned by the state governor.

In the neighboring state of Oaxaca, 68 mud-brick houses were damaged and five people were injured, one of them seriously, in the hardest hit area around the town of Pinotepa Nacional near the Pacific coast, local emergency services said.

Some buildings in the capital's trendy district of Condesa were cracked by the earthquake on Tuesday, and residents raced out of buildings with young children and dogs in their arms.

"I swear I never felt one so strong, I thought the building was going to collapse," said Sebastian Herrera, 42, a businessman from a Mexico City neighborhood hit hard in 1985.

Television images showed part of a bridge collapsed onto a vehicle on the outskirts of Mexico City, but Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said no one was injured and that helicopter flyovers showed there was no sign of major damage in the capital.

President Felipe Calderon also said there were no reports of serious damage.

More than two hours after the quake, some residents of the capital were still too scared to return to their homes, fearing powerful aftershocks.