■ Mexico:

Death toll climbed to at least 252 in wake of 7.1 temblor.

Rescue efforts are continuing after a massive earthquake, but reports of children trapped at a collapsed school appear to be unfounded.

authorities said that at least

one boy or girl was believed to be alive in the wrecked building but that they were not sure of the child’s name. Then the navy’s announce- ment dashed any remaining hopes.

For many, the fate of one little boy or girl became a symbolic stand-in for a pan- orama of loss. Even for those without casualties in their circle of family and friends, widely shared news of the rescue effort at the school provided a national touchstone after the quake had robbed so many of any sense of safety and normalcy.

Outside quake-wrecked buildings, successful rescues heartened everyone. Cheers erupted overnight at the site of a collapsed multistory office building in Condesa where rescuers pulled three people alive from the rub- ble, witnesses said. More were believed still trapped, authorities said.

Shows of solidarity were everywhere. On Thursday morning, volunteers armed with shovels lined up near the rescue site to relieve those who had been moving rubble all night. Other volunteers handed out cof- fee, sandwiches and chilaquiles — a popular Mexican breakfast dish — to dust-covered rescuers.

A continual stream of cars pulledtionple dropping centers:up at makeshiftoff ordinaryfood, water,dona- peogloves, hard hats and protective face masks.

President Enrique Peña Nieto, who has declared three days of national mourn- ing, on Thursday paid a hos- pital visit to those injured in the l nationalknownthe Assistancealong firefighterstrained requestedThe quake. arrivalU.S. withas dogs. USAID,Deve Agency Responseby andof moretheits The five opment, reported Disaster Mexicanfor than highlyteam, Team, Inter- 60 conduct government,damagefor with groups victimslocalto assessments,bring authoritiesand will assistance coordinateand searchaid to those effortsAs dawnmost pushed affected.broke, ahead rescue in and neighborhoodspoor. Hours earlier,rich in the affluent district of La Condesa, a woman’s faint voice could hardly be heard under a pile of rubble that had been her second-story apartment. Rescuers thought there could be up to four people under the collapsed ruins.

ing’s night,entire Standing volunteersremainsfloors firefighters,in atopon slices, peeled Wednesdaythe soldiers diggingbuild- back and past books, people’s blankets, belongings:clothes, an ironing board. Couches and pillows went flying.

The rescuers demanded silence. One of them stuck his head down into the void, calling for anyone there to answer if they could. But it was still too loud. Generators and vehicles were turned off. Small chatter subsided. “We need absolute silence,” the worker said. “Please.” From a few dozen yards away, the voice sounded like a whisper. The rescuers waited. The trapped woman called to them again. People stood still, capti- vated. Some of them wept. A woman broke the silence, yelling over a megaphone: “She is Lorna. She’s on the second floor.” The woman said Lorna’s family was trying to call her. Seconds later, a phone chimed from inside the pile. After Lorna spoke, the workers quickened their pace, passing buckets of concrete down lines of volunteers to a truck for disposal. A storm had come

into the city around 7:30 p.m., pummeling the site with rain for several minutes. Thunder crackled, and lightning flashed.

At 5 a.m., rescuers recovered another body from the building: that of Gabriela Jaén Pimienta, 44 — found hugging her Chihuahua, also dead. She had lived on the fifth floor with her husband and daughter, who both survived the earthquake, said relatives who had kept a dayand-night vigil.

In parts of the city, life appeared to be returning to normal Thursday. People stood in front of their homes, sweeping away leaves that had fallen in the overnight rainstorm. Mexico City’s

famous tamale vendors were back on the streets, hawking

their wares from the backs of bicycles.

But neighborhoods more affected by the quake looked like war zones. Soldiers guarded a park where rescue efforts were being coordinated.

Many rescuers had worked through the night. The lucky ones had slept a little in soggy tents assembled in the park.

A worker listens for signs of life in rubble after the Mexico earthquake.

GETTY IMAGES Israeli and Mexican rescuers work at the top of a destroyed building trying to recover the body of a man two days after the magnitude 7.1 earthquake.

REBECCA BLACKWELL / AP ople embrace during an outdoor Catholic Mass near the Enrique Rebsamen school that collapsed during the earthquake in Mexico City Thursday.