Mexico City rocked by strong quake

MEXICO CITY— A magnitude-7.2 earthquake shook south and central Mexico Friday, causing people to flee swaying buildings and office towers in the country’s capital, where residents were still jittery after a deadly quake five months ago.

Crowds of people gathered on Mexico City’s central Reforma Ave., and on streets in Oaxaca state’s capital, nearer the quake’s epicentre, which was in a rural area close to Mexico’s Pacific coast.

“It was awful,” said Mercedes Rojas Huerta, 57, who sat outside her home in Mexico City’s Condesa district, too frightened to go back inside. “It started to shake; the cars were going here and there. What do I do?”

She said she was still scared thinking of the Sept. 19 earthquake that caused 228 deaths in the capital and 141 more in nearby states. Many buildings are still damaged from that quake.

Mexican Civil Protection chief Luis Felipe Puente tweeted that there were no immediate reports of damages on Friday. The Oaxaca government said via Twitter that only material damages were reported near Pinotepa and Santiago Jamiltepec, but that shelters were opened for those fleeing damaged homes.