Huge earthquake kills dozens and topples buildings in Mexico
● 7.1 magnitude quake happened on the anniversary of 1985 disaster
A powerful earthquake has hit central Mexico, toppling buildings in the capital and leaving dozens dead.
All flights from Mexico City were suspended after the magnitude 7.1 quake which sent panicked office workers streaming into the streets.
Mexican media broadcast images of several fallen buildings in heavily populated parts of Mexico City and nearby Cuernavaca, and there were reports of people trapped.
Graco Ramirez, governor of the central state of Morelos, said 42 had died there, including 12 in the city Jojutla and four in the state capital of Cuernavaca, a city of about 350,000 people.
Mexico state governor Alfredo del Mazo said the tremor killed at least two people in his state, which borders Mexthe ico City. It struck on the anniversary of a 1985 quake that caused major damage, and 11 days after another huge earthquake killed 96 people.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto urged people to avoid the streets so emergency services could easily reach the hardest-hit areas.
US President Donald Trump tweeted: “God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.”
The US Geological Survey has said the epicentre was near the town of Raboso, about 76 miles south east of Mexico City.
In the capital, thousands of people fled office buildings and hugged to calm each other along the central Reforma Avenue as alarms blared, and traffic stopped around the Angel of Independence monument.
Earlier in the day workplaces across the city held readiness drills on the anniversary of the 1985 quake, a magnitude 8.1 shake, which killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of Mexico City.
In the Roma neighbourhood, which was hit hard by 1985 quake, piles of plaster and brick fallen from building facades littered the streets. At least one large parking structure collapsed.
At a nearby market, a worker in a hard hat walked around the outside warning people not to smoke as a smell of gas filled the air.
Market stall vendor Edith Lopez, 25, said she was in a taxi a few blocks away when the quake struck.
She said she saw glass bursting out of the windows of some buildings. She was anxiously trying to locate her children, whom she had left in the care of her disabled mother.
Pictures fell from office building walls, objects were shaken off of flat surfaces and computer monitors toppled over. Some people dove for cover under desks.
Throughout Mexico City, rescue workers and residents dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings seeking survivors.
At one site in Roma, rescue workers cheered as they brought a woman alive from what remained of a toppled building. After cheering, the workers immediately called for quiet again so they could listen for the sound of survivors under the rubble.
Much of Mexico City is built on former lake bed, and the soil is known to amplify the effects of earthquakes even hundreds of miles away. The magnitude 8.1 quake that hit on 7 September on Mexico’s southern coast was also felt strongly in the capital.
US Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle said that the epicentres of the two quakes were 400 miles apart and most aftershocks were within 60 miles. There have been 19 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or larger within 155 miles of yesterday’s quake in the past century.
There are usually about 15 to 20 earthquakes this size or larger each year, MR Earle said. Initial calculations show that more than 30 million people would have felt the quake.
The US Geological Survey predicts “significant casualty and damage are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread.”