Mail Online :
At least 248 people are dead after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Mexico on Tuesday causing widespread devastation across Mexico City where a school has collapsed.
Twenty children and two adults were confirmed dead after being found in the debris of the Enrique Rebsamen school, with a further 30 children and eight adults still missing as of 2am Wednesday.
The tremor struck near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 75 miles southeast of Mexico City, and came on the anniversary of another devastating earthquake in 1985.
It also came just days after another 8.1-magnitude earthquake which struck Chipas, killed at least 98 people, and hours after nationwide emergency practice drills.
Horrifying images coming out of the country’s capital show rubble strewn across roads and enormous chunks of collapsed buildings laying on the ground with hundreds of terrified locals fleeing onto the streets.
Volunteer rescue worker Pedro Serrano, 29, a doctor, was one of the rescuers who managed to make it inside the collapsed school where he found a classroom with all of the occupants dead.
‘We dug holes, then crawled in on our bellies,’ Serrano said.
‘We managed to get into a collapsed classroom. We saw some chairs and wooden tables. The next thing we saw was a leg, and then we started to move rubble and we found a girl and two adults – a woman and a man.’
Asked if there was hope of finding anyone alive, Serrano looked weary but said workers were still trying despite the danger.
‘We can hear small noises, but we don’t know if they’re coming from above or below, from the walls above (crumbling), or someone below calling for help.’
Tuesday’s quake is one of the deadliest since 1985; here are the others:
Sept. 19-20, 1985: Two earthquakes in western Mexico, one magnitude 8.0, kill at least 9,500 people in Mexico City and other parts of central and western Mexico.
Oct. 9, 1995: Magnitude 8.0 quake near Manzanillo on central Pacific coast kills at least 51 people.
Sept. 30, 1999: Magnitude 7.5 quake kills at least 20 people in southern state of Oaxaca.
Jan 21, 2003: Magnitude 7.8 quake strikes western and central Mexico, killing at least 28 people, injuring 300 and leaving 10,000 homeless, many of them in the state of Colima.
Sept. 7, 2017: Magnitude 8.1 quake hits southern coast of Mexico, killing at least 90 people and damaging or destroying thousands of houses and hundreds of schools.
On Tuesday night, Donald Trump said on Twitter: ‘God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.’
His thoughts were echoed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said he was saddened by the loss of life and damage resulting from the earthquake in Mexico.
Meanwhile, the government of Mexico has declared a state of disaster in Mexico City, freeing up emergency funds.
President Enrique Pena Nieto said he had ordered all hospitals to open their doors to the injured after the magnitude 7.1 quake.
As of late Tuesday 40 percent of Mexico City and 60 percent of Morelos state have no electricity, he said.
