At least 226 people were killed by a powerful earthquake that struck central Mexico on Tuesday, the nation's civil protection agency said.
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09:38
Rescue crews and ordinary citizens searched through rubble for survivors as night fell on Tuesday on battered cities in central Mexico, including the capital, where the death toll from a major earthquake grew to at least 149, APA reported citing Reuters.
The magnitude 7.1 quake toppled dozens of buildings, broke gas mains and sparked fires less than two weeks after another powerful quake killed at least 98 people in southern Mexico. It also hit just hours after emergency drills marked the anniversary of a temblor that killed thousands in 1985.
Millions of people fled into the streets, where they weathered the violent shaking and desperately sought word about the welfare of family and friends.
Emergency personnel in Mexico City, a metropolitan region of about 20 million people, searched frantically with picks and shovels for survivors beneath the rubble of what the sprawling city’s mayor calculated to be as many as 44 collapsed buildings, including at least one primary school.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said late on Tuesday more than 20 children and two adults had been found dead at the school, Colegio Enrique Rebsamen, in the neighbourhood of Coapa. Another 30 children and 12 adults were missing, he said.
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06:23
At least 138 people died when a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck central Mexico on Tuesday, toppling buildings in the heavily populated capital where rescuers scoured frantically under the rubble of ruins for survivors, APA reports quoting Reuters.
Thousands ran into the streets in panic, and millions lost electricity when the quake struck around lunchtime.
Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said 44 buildings were severely damaged or destroyed. Several major gas leaks and fires occurred.
Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told local television rescue teams were working painstakingly with picks and shovels. The United Nations expressed condolences and said it was ready to assist.
“We have some buildings where we have reports that there could be people inside. They are doing it with lots of caution,” the interior secretary said, adding that more rescue personnel would be needed.
Ambulances and fire engines confronted gridlock on Mexico City’s streets as millions of workers tried to go home.
The temblor occurred on the 32nd anniversary of a devastating quake that killed thousands in Mexico City in 1985. Many Mexicans had taken part in earthquake drills on Tuesday as is customary every Sept. 19.
A powerful quake in southern Mexico on Sept. 7 killed at least 98 people.
Among buildings that collapsed in the capital on Tuesday were apartment blocks, a school, a factory and a supermarket. The fashionable Roma district was hard hit, and a six-story apartment building was among several collapses reported.
Hundreds of volunteers and rescue workers dug through the rubble with picks, shovels and their bare hands.
“My wife is there. I haven’t been able to communicate with her. She is not answering, and now they are telling us we have to turn off our cellphones because there is a gas leak,” said Juan Jesus Garcia, 33, choking back tears.
On Twitter, relatives posted pleas for news of family members, including 8-year-old Alexis Vargas Macias who was at Enrique Rebsamen school when the quake hit. The school collapsed, television images showed, and according to local media and family members on social media, several children were killed.
Earthquakes of magnitude 7 or above are regarded as major and are capable of causing widespread heavy damage.
The highest death toll was in Morelos State, just south of Mexico City, where 64 deaths were reported, said Luis Felipe Puente, head of the nation’s civil protection agency. In Mexico City, at least 36 people were killed, he said.
In the neighboring state of Mexico, at least nine people were killed. Twenty-nine deaths were reported in the central state of Puebla, to the south, Puente said.
The epicenter of Tuesday’s quake was in Puebla, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and 41 deaths were reported there earlier. There was no explanation for the disparity with the figure Puente cited.
One death was also reported in the state of Guerrero, in southwestern Mexico, which Puente did not include in his count.
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00:26
More than 40 people have have been killed when a powerful earthquake hit southern Mexico, causing serious damage to buildings in the country’s capital on the anniversary of a 1985 quake that inflicted major damage to Mexico City, APA reports quoting the Guardian.
Graco Ramírez, the governor of central Morelos state tweeted that at least 42 people had been killed in the state, while several more were reported in the State of Mexico, which wraps around the country’s capital.
An earthquake of 7.4 magnitude hit southern Mexico on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake hit five miles (eight km) southeast of Atencingo in the state of Puebla at a depth of 32 miles (51 km), USGS said.
Local media in Puebla reported that five people had died there. Puebla governor Tony Galil tweeted that several buildings in the city of Cholula had been damaged, including churches whose steeples collapsed.
Several buildings in Mexico City collapsed reportedly trapping people inside, cars were crushed and swathes of the capital were left without electricity.
Video posted online showed one building in the Reforma neighbourhood collapsing in a cloud of dust as onlookers screamed and ran for safety.
Across the city, sirens wailed and plumes of dust rose hight into the air. Federal police officers with sniffer dogs were deployed to the collapsed buildings.
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