Earthquake kills 139 in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing buildings and killing dozens of people on the anniversary of a 1985 quake that devastated Mexico City.

Coming less than two weeks after a deadly temblor off the country’s Pacific coast, and hours after a siren signaled an annual earthquake drill in the capital, Tuesday’s quake shook the ground with terrifying force, buckling walls and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets.

At least 139 people were killed, Mexico’s Civil Defense agency reported. They included at least 54 people in Morelos state, 30 in Mexico City, 26 in the state of Puebla, nine in the state of Mexico, which surrounds the capital, and one in Oaxaca.

Residents feared more people were buried under rubble. At least 44 buildings collapsed or partly caved in in the quake, said Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera.

In the Mexico City neighborhood of Del Valle, a frantic scene played out Tuesday as hundreds of people gathered to search for trapped residents.

At least two multistory apartment buildings fell, and residents said dozens of people could have been inside. Marines, medical volunteers and regular citizens formed lines to pass trash cans, plastic crates, and plastic barrels to remove debris.

Victor Arrecha, 25, who lived nearby, said he feared that up to 40 people might have been trapped inside one of the buildings.

“My friends lived there,” he said, looking at the pancaked apartment building directly in front of his house.

The federal interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, said authorities’ search efforts were slow because of how fragile the rubble is.

“It has to be done carefully,” he said. “time is against us.”

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was 76 miles southeast of the capital, near the town of Raboso in Puebla. There appeared to be widespread damage, including to a major highway connecting Mexico City to Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, about 35 miles to the south. Authorities closed the Mexico City airport to inspect it for damage.

At the Clinica Gabriel Mancera in Mexico City, more than a dozen hospital beds had been set up on the patio outside as a triage center.

Leticia Gonzalez, a 45-year-old maid in a nearby apartment building, said she tried to race out of the building but that concrete crashed down as she fled.

“We were all running like crazy,” she said. “This was the worst earthquake I’ve ever seen.”

The earthquake struck less than two weeks after the 8.1 magnitude quake off the Pacific coast of southern Mexico. Scientists said the same large-scale tectonic mechanism caused both events: The larger North American Plate is forcing the edge of the Cocos Plate to sink. This collision generated both quakes. But it was unlikely that the quake earlier this month caused Tuesday’s disaster. very And