Mexico helicopter crash kills 13 after earthquake
At least 13 people, including three children, were killed when a Mexican military helicopter carrying senior officials surveying damage caused by an earthquake crashed in the southern state of Oaxaca, authorities yesterday said.
The helicopter, which was carrying Mexico’s Interior Minister and the state governor, crashed on top of two vans in an open field while trying to land in the small town of Santiago Jamiltepec.
The officials survived but 12 people at the scene were killed and another died later in a hospital, said the Oaxaca attorney general’s office. Fifteen people were injured.
“I understand that there are people who have lost their lives,” Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete told the Televisa network.
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook southern and central Mexico on Friday, causing panic less than six months after two devastating tremors killed hundreds of people.
It left nearly a million homes and businesses without power in Mexico City and the south, and damaged at least 50 homes in Oaxaca, the site of the epicentre.
The earthquake triggered Mexico City’s alarm system and caused buildings to sway in the capital, Agence France-Presse reported. It was also felt in the states of Guerrero, Puebla and Michoacan.
Residents flooded into the streets, fearing a repeat of the two earthquakes last September, which caused buildings to collapse and killed a total of 465 people.
“To be honest we’re all pretty upset,” said Kevin Valladolid, 38, a publicist who had from his building in La Roma in central Mexico City. “We start crying whenever the alarm goes off,”
“We’re stressed out, we have flashbacks, so we run out into the street. It’s all we can do.”
On the north side of the city, Julia Hernandez said she felt like she was “in a boat” as the ground swayed beneath her feet.
“Is it ever going to stop?” she asked.
Standing in the middle of the street with her eyes glued to her fifth-floor apartment, Graciela Escalante, 72, could hardly speak.
“It was terribly strong. We barely managed to get down the stairs. It was the longest staircase in the world,” she said. “We thought everything was going to collapse again.”
Officials in affected states said they were inspecting buildings damaged by last year’s earthquakes, which were especially vulnerable to collapse.
“Obviously people are afraid,” said the emergency response chief for the city of Puebla, Gustavo Ariza.
President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted that the National Emergency Committee had been activated because of the strength of the latest quake.
In Oaxaca, authorities reported some structural damage to buildings in two towns, Pinotepa Nacional and Santiago Jamiltepec.
“Shelters have already been opened for those affected,” the state government said on Twitter.
Near the upscale Mexico City neighbourhood of Condesa, a hospital moved patients into the street, some in wheelchairs or with their IV lines. Similar scenes played out in Veracruz.