Biggest quake in century shatters Mexico, 32 killed
At 32 people were killed as Mexico was hit by the most powerful earthquake in a century that struck off the nation's Pacific Coast late on Thursday, rattling millions of residents with its violent tremors and triggering a series of tsunami waves.
The quake hit offshore in the Pacific at 11.49 p.m. (0449 GMT), about 100 kilometres from the coastal town of Tonala, in far southern Chiapas state, Mexico's seismologic service said. A tsunami warning was issued for Mexico, with three-metrehigh waves possible, and other nearby countries.
The epicentre of the earthquake was off the coast of Chiapas, a state in southern Mexico, but the rumblings rocked the Mexican capital more than 600 miles away, causing electricity failures, and reports of sporadic damage, the New York Times reported.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said the quake measured 8.2 and was the strongest earthquake Mexico has experienced in 100 years whereas the US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 8.1. About 50 million people across the country felt the earthquake. The force sent residents of the megacity fleeing into the streets at midnight, shaken by the alarms blaring over loudspeakers and a full minute of tremors.
Windows broke, walls collapsed, and the city seemed to convulse in terrifying waves. The quake even rocked the city's landmark Angel of Independence monument. The effects in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca were probably more severe.
Alejandro Murat, the Governor of Oaxaca, said that at least 23 people had died in the state, and local officials said residents were buried under the rubble of buildings. –IANS