Rescuers refuse to quit search for quake victims

MEXICO CITY — As officials turn their focus to rebuilding, rescuers continued to search for survivors in the remnants of collapsed buildings five days after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Mexico, killing at least 319 people.

Rescuers yesterday continued to dig through the ruins of an office building in the central neighborhood of Condesa and at a school where 21 children died in the southern part of the city.

Experts say the chance of finding survivors decreases three days after an earthquake, but rescuers have vowed to press on.

During a tour of Jiquipilas in the southern state of Chiapas, President Enrique Pena Nieto looked ahead, urging people to be strong as they begin to rebuild.

“United together in all of Mexico, we will face this task of reconstruction and see that things return to normal,” he said.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the city has received 11,200 requests for property inspections and has completed almost 70 percent of them, including at nearly 550 schools.

Rescue efforts were briefly paused after an aftershock hit Saturday morning, with a magnitude of 6.1. It was centered about 325 miles southeast of Mexico City in the state of Oaxaca, the region that took the brunt of a magnitude 8.1 quake on Sept. 7.