Death Toll From Mexico Earthquake Reaches 119

The Latest on the strong earthquake that hit Mexico City (all times local):

6:05 p.m.

The death toll in Mexico’s magnitude 7.1 quake has risen to 119. That’s the largest number of fatalities in a Mexican earthquake since the 1985 quake that killed thousands.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told local media that at least 30 people had died in the capital, where buildings collapsed or were badly damaged at 44 points throughout the city. Between 50 and 60 people were pulled alive from the rubble by citizens and rescue workers in the city.

State officials said at least 54 people died in the state of Morelos, south of the capital; 26 died in Puebla, according to the director of disaster prevention, Carlos Valdes. Nine died in the State of Mexico, according to the state’s governor.

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5:55 p.m.

The death toll from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit central Mexico has risen to 104.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera says that at least 30 people have died in Mexico City, and officials in Morelos state, just to the south, said 54 had died there. At least 11 others died in Puebla state, according to Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the state’s Interior Department.

Gov. Alfredo del Mazo said at least nine had died in the State of Mexico, which also borders the capital.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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5:45 p.m.

Mexican officials say the national death toll from a major earthquake has risen to 94. Mexico City’s mayor said 30 are dead in the capital alone.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said at least 44 buildings collapsed and that between 50 and 60 people have been pulled alive from rubble.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.1 quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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5:40 p.m.

Amid the destruction of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake, residents of Mexico City are digging through rubble to save their neighbors.

Carlos Mendoza was standing just blocks away when an apartment building collapsed in Mexico City’s trendy Roma neighborhood.

The 30-year-old joined the rescue efforts and said he has been able to pull two people alive from the rubble in three hours of work.

“When we saw this we came to help. This is ugly, very ugly,” he said, covered in dust.

Also in Roma, Alma Gonzalez was in her fourth-floor apartment when the quake collapsed the ground floor of her building, leaving her no way out.

She was terrified until the people living in the neighboring house mounted a ladder on their roof and helped her slide out a side window.

“They helped us leave with a ladder,” Gonzalez said. “I think my father the Lord who has us here for some reason.”

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5:30 p.m.

Mexico’s federal government says the death toll in a magnitude 7.1 earthquake has risen to 79.

The announcement posted on Twitter did not break down the locations of the deaths, but said they included Mexico City and the states of Morelos, Puebla and Mexico.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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5:15 p.m.

Mexico’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake has forced cancellation of a soccer match between two major Mexico City clubs, Cruz Azul and America.

The national soccer league said the game that had been scheduled for Tuesday evening would be reprogrammed for a later date. It’s part of the Copa MX championship series.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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5 p.m.

The governor of Mexico State has announced six more earthquake deaths, bringing nationwide total to 61.

Gov. Alfredo del Mazo had earlier announced two deaths.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.1 quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

4:40 p.m.

Nutritionist Mariana Morales was one of the thousands of Mexico City residents who spontaneously participated in rescue efforts following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that devastated central Mexico.

The 26-year-old says she joined the efforts after seeing a building collapsing in a cloud of dust before her eyes.

Morales says she was in a taxi when the quake struck Tuesday and she got out and sat on the sidewalk to recover from the scare. As she sat there the building tumbled a few meters away from her.

“There was the sound of thunder ... then dust and all this,” Morales said.

“The people are organizing quickly,” she said.

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4:30 p.m.

A spokesman for Puebla’s interior department says that 11 people have died so far in the central Mexican state following a magnitude 7.1 quake.

The deaths reported by spokesman Francisco Sanchez bring the toll across Mexico to 55.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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4 p.m.

Gala Dluzhynska was taking a class with 11 other women on the second floor of a building in Mexico City’s Roma district when the structure collapsed during a magnitude 7.1 earthquake.

More than two hours after the quake, the women stood on the sidewalk across the street covered from head-to-toe in dust. One had a cut on her foot that was being bandaged.

Dluzhynska said the building’s stairway was very tight and surrounded with glass. As they ran out of the building amid the quake, everything started falling around them. Some people panicked. She said she fell in the stairway and others began to walk over her.

She shouted for help and someone pulled her to her feet. She said the dust was so thick you couldn’t see anything.

“There weren’t any stairs anymore only rocks,” she said.

When they reached the bottom, an exit gate was locked and they began to scream for help. People were pushing her from behind against the bars. Finally a security guard came and unlocked the gate. Outside it was all rubble.

She said they were still looking for one classmate who was missing.

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3:50 p.m.

Throughout Mexico City, rescuer workers and residents dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings seeking survivors following a 7.1 magnitude quake.

At one site in the Mexico City neighborhood of Roma, rescue workers cheered as they brought a woman alive from what remained of a toppled building. After cheering, the workers immediately called for quiet again so they could listen for the sound of survivors under the rubble.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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3:40 p.m.

The governor of the central Mexican state of Morelos says at least 42 people have died as a result of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that shook the country.

Gov. Graco Ramirez says that 12 of the dead were in the city Jojutla and four were in the state capital of Cuernavaca, which is a city of about 350,000 people.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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3:15 p.m.

The 7.1 earthquake was too far from the larger quake 11 days ago to be an aftershock and appears to be a separate and unrelated event, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle. The epicenters of the two quakes are 650 kilometers apart and most aftershocks are within 100 kilometers, Earle said.

Tuesday’s quake was at a known tectonic fault, but not at the edges of two moving plates, like many strong earthquakes, Earle said. This fault was inside the Cocos plate, which about 300 kilometers further east slips under the North American plate. As that happens, there is a “pulling apart motion” of the plates, he said.

There have been 19 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or larger within 250 kilometers of Tuesday’s quake in the past century, Earle said.

Tuesday’s quake happened on the anniversary of a deadly 1985 Mexico City 8.0 magnitude earthquake, Earle said.

Earth usually has about 15 to 20 earthquakes this size or larger each year, Earle said.

Initial calculations show that more than 30 million people would have felt moderate shaking from Tuesday’s quake. The US Geological Survey predicts “significant casualty and damage are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread.”

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3:10 p.m.

Mexico State Gov. Alfredo del Mazo tells the Televisa news network that the magnitude 7.1 earthquake has killed at least two people in his state, which borders Mexico City.

Del Mazo said a quarry worker was killed when the quake unleashed a rock slide, and another died when hit by a falling lamppost.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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3:05 p.m.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera says there are reports of people trapped in collapsed buildings in Mexico City, though the number is not clear.

He told the Televisa network that there appear to be 20 or more buildings that collapsed or suffered serious damage.

Mancera said he did not yet have any report of fatalities from the magnitude 7.1 quake which was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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2:55 p.m.

Mexico City’s international airport says it has suspended operations due to the magnitude 7.1 quake that shook the central part of the country.

The airport says in a tweet that airport personnel are checking the structures for damage. It’s not immediately clear how many flights have been affected.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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2:45 p.m.

Mexican television stations are showing dramatic images a several story building collapsing following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that rattled the center of the country. It was unclear if people were inside the building.

Numerous other buildings collapsed or suffered serious damage across central Mexico in Tuesday’s quake.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.1 and was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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2:20 p.m.

Mexican television stations are broadcasting images of collapsed buildings in heavily populated parts of the city following Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake. Televisa broadcast images of a plume of smoke rising from one large structure.

One of the collapsed buildings is a large parking garage alongside a hospital.

There are no immediate reports on casualties.

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2:10 p.m.

Puebla Gov. Tony Gali says buildings have been damaged in his state in central Mexico by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake.

Gali said on his official Twitter account that “we will continue reviewing” damages and urged people to follow emergency procedures.

“What we have reports of is material damage ... we have no reports of deaths so far,” tweeted Puebla Interior Secretary Diodoro Carrasco.

He said the towers of some churches have fallen in the city of Cholula, which is famous for its many churches.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.1 and was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

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2 p.m.

On Mexico City’s main boulevard, thousands of people streamed out of buildings into the streets in a panic, filling the plaza around the Independence Monument with a mass of people.

Traffic came to a standstill, as masses of workers blocked streets. Clouds of dust rose from fallen pieces of facades.

Office workers hugged each other to calm themselves.

In the city’s Roma neighborhood, which was struck hard by the 85 quake, small piles of stucco and brick fallen from building facades littered the streets.

Two men calmed a woman, blood trickling form a small wound on her knee, seated on a stool in the street, telling her to breathe deeply.

At a nearby market, a worker in a hard hat walked around the outside of the building, warning people not to smoke as a smell of cooking gas filled the air.

Market stall vendor Edith Lopez, 25, had been in a taxi a few blocks away when the quake struck. She said she saw glass bursting out of the windows of some buildings.

1:50 p.m.

Buildings have been seriously damaged in Mexico City after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook central Mexico.

Local television stations broadcast images of collapsed facades and streets filled with rubble.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

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1:35 p.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey says it calculates the earthquake that struck central Mexico as magnitude 7.1

It says the epicenter was near the town of Raboso, about 76 miles (123 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City.

Mexico’s seismological agency calculated its preliminary magnitude at 6.8 and said its center was east of the city in the state of Puebla.

Earlier in the day buildings across the city held preparation drills on the anniversary of the 1985 quake.