Mexican quake deadliest since ’85
Buildings collapse, thousands flee
MEXICO CITY — A powerful earthquake shook central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing buildings in plumes of dust and killing at least 149 people. Thousands fled into the streets in panic, and many stayed to help rescue those trapped.
Dozens of buildings tumbled into mounds of rubble or were severely damaged in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby states. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said buildings fell at 44 places in the capital alone as highrises across the city swayed sickeningly.
Hours after the magnitude-7.1 quake, rescue workers were clawing through the wreckage of a primary school that partly collapsed in the southern part of the city, looking for children who might be trapped. Relatives said they had received Whatsapp message from two girls inside.
Late Tuesday night, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said 22 people had died at a school. Two of the dead were adults. It wasn’t clear whether any of those deaths had been included in the overall toll given of 149.
Peña Nieto visited the school late Tuesday. He said in comments broadcast online by Financiero TV that 30 children and eight adults were still reported missing.
The quake is the deadliest in Mexico since a 1985 quake on the same date killed thousands. It came less than two weeks after another powerful quake caused 90 deaths in the country’s south.
Luis Felipe Puente, head of the national Civil Defence agency, reported Tuesday night that the confirmed death toll had been raised to 149.
On Twitter, he said 55 people died in Morelos state, just south of Mexico City, while 49 died in the capital and 32 were killed in nearby Puebla state, where the quake was centred. Ten people died in the State of Mexico, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides, and three were killed in Guerrero state, he said.
The count did not include one death that officials in the southern state of Oaxaca reported earlier as quake-related.
The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City, freeing up emergency funds. Peña Nieto said he had ordered all hospitals to open their doors to the injured.
Mancera, the Mexico City mayor, said 50 to 60 people were rescued alive by citizens and emergency workers in the capital. Authorities said at least 70 people in the capital had been hospitalized for injuries.
In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said there had been no reports of Canadian casualties.
Calling the quake “devastating,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter that Canada is ready to help “our friends” in Mexico.
The Canadian Embassy in Mexico tweeted out an emergency phone number and an email address for any Canadians needing assistance.
The Mexican federal interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, said authorities had reports of people possibly still being trapped in collapsed buildings. He said search efforts were slow because of the fragility of rubble.
The quake sent people throughout the capital fleeing homes and offices, and many remained in the streets for hours, fearful of returning to the structures.
Alarms blared and traffic stopped around the Angel of Independence monument on the iconic Reforma Avenue.
Electricity and cellphone service was interrupted in many areas, and traffic was snarled as signal lights went dark.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-7.1 quake hit at 11:14 a.m PDT and was centred near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 125 kilometres southeast of Mexico City.
Earlier in the day, workplaces across Mexico City had held earthquake readiness drills on the anniversary of the 1985 quake, a magnitude-8.0 shake that killed thousands and devastated large parts of the capital.