A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck southwest Mexico on Saturday morning, not far from where a deadly quake hit roughly two weeks ago off, officials said.

The temblor began just before 8 a.m. local time in the state of Oaxaca, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was reported 46 miles northwest of the coastal town of Salina Cruz and 122 miles from the state capital Oaxaca.

People in Mexico City reported feeling the swaying and believed it was an aftershock, but USGS has not reported any seismic activity in the area near Puebla, where a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck on Tuesday, killing 295 people in the region.

Buildings in the nation's capital remain unstable and its residents were already harrowed by a tireless search and rescue effort. KTLA's Christina Pascucci, who has been reporting from Mexico City, said she was trying to catch up on sleep Saturday morning when she was shaken awake on the fourth floor of her hotel.

“I was trying to sleep in a little bit and all of a sudden I woke up in grogginess and everything was creaking, swaying, and I could tell it was strong but I was so confused," she said. "I looked out and I saw all the movement outside and I heard the alarms, and my cameraman came and pounded on the door and said, ‘Earthquake, let’s go.’ ”

Once outside, a large group of people stood assembled, hugging.

“I mean, it was pretty strong," Pascucci said. "Not like anything they experienced on Tuesday, but I’m still shaking.”

“It was big enough for us to know it was big,” she said, but from what she saw not powerful enough knock to people over.

Southeast Mexico has seen a flurry of seismic activity in recent weeks, especially following an 8.1 magnitude temblor that hit Sept. 7, killing about 90 people and rendering many in the region homeless. An earthquake struck most recently near Oaxaca on Tuesday, the same day as the larger one that badly damaged Mexico City.

Check back for updates on this developing story. </s> • None An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 at a depth of 24 km occurred in the State of Oaxaca, southern Pacific Coast of Mexico, on 16 February at 23:39 UTC. The epicentre was located 37 kilometres northeast of Pinotepa, in Oaxaca State. After the earthquake, there have been registered 261 aftershocks including a 5.8 magnitude one.
• None The National Emergency Committee has informed that there are no dead people due to the earthquake. In Pinotepa, there were two people injured and in the city of Santiago Jamiltepec, close to the epicentre, there were 50 houses damaged and the main hospital has suffered damages that affect its normal functioning.
• None A military helicopter crashed on 16 February, killing two people on the ground. It was carrying the Oaxaca state governor and the Ministry of Interior to the affected areas, neither of whom were seriously harmed.
• None Mexican authorities will be conducting damage and needs assessments on the early hours of Saturday 17 February. </s> A magnitude-6 earthquake struck Oaxaca state in southern Mexico early Monday, just two days after another quake measuring 7.2 hit the region.

The National Seismological Service said that the earthquake occurred at 12:57 am with its epicenter 32 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Pinotepa Nacional at a depth of 10 km. </s> OAXACA, Mexico — A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Oaxaca, Mexico, early Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake was located 4 miles from Lázaro Cárdenas in southern Oaxaca. USGS puts the depth at 32 kilometers.

This is the third major earthquake for Mexico within a month.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the new earthquake to strike Mexico had a magnitude of 6.1 and was centered in the southern state of Oaxaca. It initially calculated the magnitude as 6.2

The director of Mexico’s disaster agency says it’s an aftershock of the 8.1 quake that hit on Sept. 7 off the country’s southern coast.

The new quake also swayed buildings in Mexico City, which is trying to recover from a magnitude 7.1 temblor that struck on Thursday, killing at least 295 people.

It’s not immediately clear if the new quake caused damage or injury. </s> An 8.1 magnitude earthquake has been detected off the coast of southern Mexico.

The massive tremor hit in the Pacific Ocean near the border of Mexico and Guatemala.

The aftershock was felt as far away as Mexico City.

People said the shock lasted as long as 90 seconds and caused office workers to flee their buildings.

The quake hit around 70 miles from the west coast of Mexico, near Tres Picos in the state of Chiapas.

Widespread, hazardous tsunami waves are possible within the next three hours, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.

The Warning Center later said the tsunami waves are expected to be between 1 and 3 metres high.

Mexico's civil protection agency said it was the strongest earthquake to hit the country since a devastating 1985 tremor that toppled buildings and killed thousands.

People in Mexico City ran out into the streets in pyjamas and alarms sounded after the quake struck just before midnight.

Power went out in some neighbourhoods.

"I had never been anywhere where the earth moved so much. At first I laughed, but when the lights went out I didn't know what to do. I nearly fell over," said Luis Carlos Briceno, an architect, 31, who was visiting Mexico City. </s> MEXICO CITY (AP) - A magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on Monday, days after a more powerful temblor hit the same area.



 State and national emergency officials said they had no immediate reports of damage from the latest shake, but schools were cancelled across the state on Monday.

 

 It was felt in Mexico City, where quake alarm sirens had people springing out of their beds and into the streets.

 

 The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 12:57 a.m. Eastern time (0657 GMT). It was centered 25 miles beneath the surface at a point 33 miles east-northeast of Pinotepa Nacional and 69 miles southwest of the state capital, Oaxaca city.

 

 It appeared to be an aftershock of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck near the same area on Friday. That quake caused no deaths, though 13 people were killed in the crash of a helicopter sent to assess the damage. </s> The state of Oaxaca was hit with a new 6.1 magnitude earthquake on Saturday morning, just days after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake which rocked Mexico City.

While details are still coming in, we do know that the epicenter of the earthquake was 275 miles southeast of Mexico City, located roughly between the previous two earthquakes that happened in Mexico earlier this month. This morning’s earthquake was not felt in Mexico City. </s> Residents were already on edge after devastating tremors left more than 400 dead

An aftershock with a magnitude of 6.1 has hit Mexico, just days after a devastating tremor left 295 people dead.

The US Geological Survey said it was centred about 11 miles (18km) from the town of Matias Romero in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Mexico's National Seismological Service recorded thousands of aftershocks just in the first nine and a half hours of Saturday, some of which measured 4.0 or greater.

Details on damage or injuries are not immediately clear, but Mexico City Mayor Miguel Mancera said residents were already on edge since last week's quake.

:: Why are there so many earthquakes in Mexico?

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Image: Buildings in Mexico City were severely damaged by an earlier earthquake

In the latest tremor, buildings swayed and a seismic alarm was set off in the capital where rescuers have been trying to reach people who remain buried in rubble from Thursday's quake.

Those rescuers have been forced to suspend their efforts.

"I heard the alarm and ran downstairs with my family," said Sergio Cedillo, a resident who was watching rescue efforts when the alarm sounded.

:: Who are the hero 'moles' of Mexico City?

Image: Specialist rescue teams continue to hunt for survivors

Alejandra Castellanos, who was staying in a hotel in the area with her husband, said she was "frightened" when she felt the earth shake for the second time in two weeks.

"I was frightened because I thought: not again," she said.

Southern Mexico was hit on 7 September by a huge 8.1 magnitude tremor.

The total number killed in the first two earthquakes is thought to be more than 400.

:: The forgotten quake victims outside Mexico City

Image: The Ring of Fire, along which 90% of the world's earthquakes occur

The Central American country suffers so much because of its position on a large grid of tectonic plates, on which all the Earth's countries and seas sit.

It also falls on the 'Ring of Fire', a horseshoe shaped area around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, from Australia to the Andes, along which 90% of all earthquakes occur. </s> Mexico City, Sep 8 (IANS) At 32 people were killed as Mexico was hit by the most powerful earthquake in a century that struck off the nation’s Pacific Coast late on Thursday, rattling millions of residents with its violent tremors and triggering a series of tsunami waves.

The quake hit offshore in the Pacific at 11.49 p.m. (0449 GMT), about 100 kilometres from the coastal town of Tonala, in far southern Chiapas state, Mexico’s seismologic service said. A tsunami warning was issued for Mexico, with three-metre-high waves possible, and other nearby countries.

The epicentre of the earthquake was off the coast of Chiapas, a state in southern Mexico, but the rumblings rocked the Mexican capital more than 600 miles away, causing electricity failures, and reports of sporadic damage, the New York Times reported.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said the quake measured 8.2 and was the strongest earthquake Mexico has experienced in 100 years whereas the US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 8.1.

About 50 million people across the country felt the earthquake. The force sent residents of the megacity fleeing into the streets at midnight, shaken by the alarms blaring over loudspeakers and a full minute of tremors.

Windows broke, walls collapsed, and the city seemed to convulse in terrifying waves. The quake even rocked the city’s landmark Angel of Independence monument. The effects in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca were probably more severe.

Alejandro Murat, the Governor of Oaxaca, told the Televisa network that at least 23 people had died in the state, and local officials said residents were buried under the rubble of buildings.

Luis Manuel García Moreno, the secretary of civil defence for the state of Chiapas, said the toll there had risen to seven, and two children died in the state of Tabasco, one when a wall collapsed, the other after a respirator lost power in a hospital.

The effects were also felt in Guatemala, where at least one person died and homes along the border with Mexico were levelled. Many people sustained injuries in the 7.3 magnitude quake that hit the country just hours after the one in Mexico.

Schools in at least 10 Mexican states were ordered closed on Friday as the President ordered an immediate assessment of the damage nationwide. In the hours after the quake, the National Seismological Service registered several aftershocks.

“We are assessing the damage, which will probably take hours, if not days,” said Nieto, who addressed the nation just two hours after the quake. “But the population is safe over all. There should not be a major sense of panic.”

Mexico is situated near several boundaries where portions of the earth’s crust collide. The quake was more powerful than the one that killed nearly 10,000 people in 1985.

Mexican authorities alerted the coastal states of Oaxaca and Chiapas of the possibility of destructive waves of higher than 13 feet.

The US Tsunami Warning System said hazardous tsunami waves were possible on the Pacific coasts of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras within three hours.

The quake comes a few days before the anniversary of the earthquake of September 19, 1985, that killed over 40,000 people in Mexico City.

At least 12 aftershocks with tremors measuring above 5.0 in magnitude and a fifth at 4.9 were recorded and some 23,000 people likely experienced the violent shaking, according to the US Geological Survey.
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Three days after the previous, stronger earthquake, a 5.9-magnitude possible aftershock strikes again near the coast of Oaxaca and is widely felt across Southern and Central Mexico. No victims are reported so far.