Earthquake rocks Mexico, leaving at least 139 dead
MEXICO CITY — A magnitude 7.1 earthquake stunned central Mexico on Tuesday, killing at least 139 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust. Thousands fled into the streets in panic, and many stayed to help rescue those trapped.
The quake came less than two weeks after another quake left 90 dead in the country’s south, and it occurred 32 years to the day after a temblor with an 8.0 magnitude killed 5,000 people — and hours after annual safety drills held on the anniversary. The disaster closed the airport, stopped the metro and ended trading on the Mexican stock exchange.
Dozens of buildings collapsed into mounds of rubble or were severely damaged in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby states.
A federal government Twitter account announced the death toll had risen to 139 by evening, though it did not give a breakdown by state.
Rescuers rushed to the sites of damaged or collapsed buildings in the capital, and reporters saw onlookers cheer as a woman was pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers immediately called for silence so that they could listen for others who might be trapped.
Mariana Morales, a 26-year-old nutritionist, was one of many who participated in rescue efforts.
She wore a paper face mask and her hands were still dusty from having joined a rescue brigade to clear rubble from a building that fell in a cloud of dust before her eyes, about 15 minutes after the quake.
Morales said she was in a taxi when the quake struck. She got out and sat on a sidewalk to try to recover from the scare. Then, just a few yards away, the three-storey building collapsed.
A dust-covered Carlos Mendoza, 30, said he and other volunteers had been able to pull two people alive from the ruins of a collapsed apartment building after three hours of effort.
“We saw this and came to help,” he said. “It’s ugly, very ugly.”
Alma Gonzalez was in her fourthfloor apartment in the Roma neighbourhood when the quake collapsed the ground floor of her building, leaving no way out — until neighbours set up a ladder on their roof and helped her slide out a window.
Gala Dluzhynska was taking a class with 11 other women on the second floor of a building on the trendy Alvaro Obregon street when the quake struck and window and ceiling panels fell.
She said she fell in the stairs and people began to walk over her before someone finally pulled her up.
“There were no stairs anymore. There were rocks,” she said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.1 hit at 1:14 p.m. local time and was centred near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 123 kilometres southeast of Mexico City.