Searches continue as quake toll reaches 361

MEXICO: The death toll from Mexico’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake rose to 361 yesterday after another casualty was confirmed in the capital, where a search continued at a collapsed seven-storey office building in a central neighbourhood.

National Civil Defence chief Luis Felipe Puente reported on Twitter that the dead include 220 people killed in Mexico City by the September 19 quake. The rest were in Morelos, Puebla and three other states.

The toll has continued to climb gradually nearly two weeks after the earthquake as bodies keep being pulled from the rubble – though nearly all the collapse sites have been cleared by now in Mexico City.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said eight people were still believed to be missing inside the wreckage of the office building, one of 38 structures that toppled in the capital.

Rescuers ‘‘continue to work intensely’’ at the site, Mancera said yesterday in a briefing on rescue and recovery efforts. He also confirmed the latest figure of 220 dead in his city and said all but one had been identified.

Mancera said 25 people remained hospitalised, including four whose condition was given as ‘‘red’’ and 21 listed as ‘‘yellow’’.

Thousands of civilians formed volunteer brigades to clear rubble and offer other help at the collapse sites, and many more have donated money, medicines and supplies at collection centres.

Mancera said officials were compiling a database of those volunteers to create a kind of ‘‘emergency corps in Mexico City where we know who to call, who to activate, who to contact’’ in a future crisis. He said it would still be strictly on a volunteer basis. –AP