Major earthquake shakes Mexico City; more than 200 people dead

MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials confirmed at least 245 deaths after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck on Tuesday, crumbling dozens of buildings across a wide area 32 years to the day after a major quake devastated the capital city in 1985.

The earthquake was the second to strike in 12 days. An earlier temblor rocked southern Mexico and shook the capital.

Luis Felipe Puente, the head of the national civil defense agency, posted a tweet Wednesday saying 94 are known dead in Mexico City, 71 in Morelos state, 43 in Puebla, 12 in the State of Mexico, four in Guerrero and one in Oaxaca.

The death rose after Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the number of confirmed dead in the capital had risen from 100 to 115. An earlier federal government statement had put the overall toll at 230, including 100 deaths in Mexico City.

On Tuesday, residents spilled out of buildings — many stayed in the streets until authorities inspected their buildings. Sirens blared throughout the afternoon. Federal Police were spotted bringing in sniffer dogs to find victims.

Parents and bystanders desperately tried to rescue students trapped in a collapsed school in southern Mexico City. Peña Nieto, who visited the Enrique Rebsamen school, said that 22 people died from the collapse. 

The federal Education Department later said that 25 bodies had been recovered from the school, all but four of them children.

Many of those in the streets said the force of the quake was as strong as the 1985 earthquake, which claimed thousands of lives, left many more homeless and reduced parts of the city to rubble. 

“This was the same as 1985. It shook bad,” said Gustavo de la Cruz, a parking lot attendant. He spotted a light fixture falling from a pole, but said the damage appeared a less severe as the last time. “That 1985 earthquake wrecked Mexico City,” he said.Others saw the damage first-hand. “There was this explosion,” said Ubaldo Juárez, a barber, who was riding his bike through the trendy, but hard-hit Condesa neighborhood. “I saw this cloud of dust, like something out of a movie.”

The Sept. 7 earthquake triggered an alarm system in Mexico City — quakes often occur far from the capital, which offers a window of 45 seconds to one minute to evacuate buildings. That didn’t occur this this time.

“Normally you have a warning. But this just struck,” said Juárez, who got down on his hands and knees to brace himself. 

The earthquake came ironically on the same day as the 1985 earthquake. It’s a day when Mexican civil protection officials conduct earthquake drills — and office workers, students and apartment dwellers practice abandoning their buildings. 

An earthquake drill occurred barely two hours before the Tuesday earthquake hit.

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