MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.2 aftershock that shook Mexico on Saturday was blamed for five deaths, spreading fear among anxious residents reeling from a string of natural disasters and interrupting the search for survivors from a bigger tremor earlier this week.

The Popocatepetl volcano south of Mexico City sent a column of ash into the sky, capping an intense period of seismic activity including two powerful tremors this month that have killed more than 400 people and caused damage of up to $8 billion.

Mexico’s capital was shattered by Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake that flattened dozens of buildings and killed at least 307 people. The government’s response to the disaster is under close scrutiny ahead of a presidential election next year.

Although the latest quake was not as destructive, fear is running high among the population. Terrified residents ran into the streets, where they crouched and prayed as earthquake sirens went off. Two women died of heart attacks as the ground shook, the city government said.

Tents were set up in different parts of the city where psychologists offered mental health support to survivors and rescuers traumatized by the natural disasters. Acts of solidarity came from all corners of Mexican society.

Tuesday’s quake hit on the anniversary of a 1985 tremor that, by some estimates, killed 10,000 people.

Roxana Trani, a 30-year-old banker, was one of the thousands of young Mexicans who turned to social media to find out how to help. She joined one of the aid collection centers that popped up in Mexico City and traveled to Puebla state in one of many convoys flooding from the city to more isolated communities.

“I never understood why the people who suffered the ‘85 quake were so afraid of the slightest tremors. Now I get it,” Trani said.

“Being at a funeral and seeing all the pain that one minute caused has changed me,” she said.

FEAR OF COLLAPSE

Concern that the aftershock could cause further collapses paralyzed rescue efforts at a housing complex in the Tlalpan neighborhood of Mexico City, frustrating first responders who believed people were alive under the rubble.

Mexican and international rescue teams remove a painting as they search for survivors in a collapsed building after an earthquake, at Roma neighborhood in Mexico City, Mexico September 23, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

By the evening, hard-hatted first responders were again digging for bodies or survivors in a dwindling number of rubble heaps. Their work barely skipped a beat elsewhere when earthquake alarms twice rang out across the city.

The United States Geological Survey said the latest quake was relatively shallow with an epicenter near Juchitan, a tropical region of Oaxaca state hard hit by a massive 8.1 magnitude tremor that struck on Sept. 7.

Three people died in Oaxaca during Saturday’s tremor, including a man who was attacked by a swarm of wild bees, authorities said.

Mexico’s seismological authorities said it was an aftershock of the Sept. 7 tremor, which was the strongest to hit the country in 85 years and killed at least 98 people.

The Popocatepetl volcano, which is visible on a clear day to the approximately 20 million people who live in the Mexico City metropolitan region, spewed vapor and ash-filled gas after two small eruptions on Saturday.

Dozens of buildings were brought to the ground by Tuesday’s earthquake, while an army of trained rescuers helped by droves of volunteers frantically removed rubble in a day-and-night search for survivors.

Apartment buildings, offices, a school and a textile factory were among the structures flattened, leaving thousands homeless. The search had wound up at many sites by Saturday.

Officials said there could be some 30,000 badly damaged homes in the adjacent states of Morelos and Puebla. RMS, a risk modeling company, estimated economic losses of $4 billion to $8 billion.

Mexican volunteers, professionals and soldiers backed by teams from the United States and countries as far away as Japan and Chile have saved 69 people from the rubble after several days of searching. But in the past 48 hours rescuers have found more corpses than survivors, and frustration was mounting.

A government response seen as lacking in the disastrous 1985 temblor severely damaged the credibility of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Mexico is now better prepared to deal with the aftermath of earthquakes, thanks to disaster planning, civic groups, a stringent building code and communication technology.

Slideshow (24 Images)

The government has run a massive search-and-rescue operation involving thousands of soldiers and police, but victims in outlying areas of the city and surrounding villages complained that aid has been slow to arrive.

“Here we have no help, everything is in the center (of the city),” said Justina Gonzalez, 55, a shopkeeper in the Xochimilco district in the far south of the city whose two-bedroom house fell down on Tuesday. She now lives in a tent and said neighbors were bringing her family food.

“We lost everything, we don’t even have a way to cook,” Gonzalez said. </s> Over 200 people hava died in an earthquake in Mexico.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday, killing hundreds as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust.

Dozens of buildings tumbled into mounds of rubble or were severely damaged in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby states.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said buildings fell at 44 places in the capital alone as high rises across the city swayed.

Hours after the earthquake, rescue workers were still clawing through the wreckage of a primary school that partly collapsed in the city's south looking for any children who might be trapped.

The earthquake is the deadliest in Mexico since a tremor in 1985 on the same date killed thousands.

The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City, freeing up emergency funds.

Federal interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, said authorities had reports of people possibly still being trapped in collapsed buildings. He said search efforts were slow because of the fragility of rubble.

"It has to be done very carefully," he said.

"Time is against us." </s> The death toll is rising in southeastern Mexico after a 7.1 Magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday. At least 225 people were killed when the strong quake collapsed buildings. Now rescuers are conducting frantic searches for survivors. 

 

At least 25 students and teachers were killed when an elementary school collapsed in Mexico City. All but four of them were children. 

 

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto visited the wreckage last night, where rescuers were digging for the missing. 

 

U.S. citizen Brittany Kaiser was giving a presentation in Mexico City when it struck. She and thousands of people fled to the streets as the air filled with smoke from collapsed buildings.

 

Rescue teams and volunteers searched through the rubble for victims. They found several people trapped, and lifted them to safety on stretchers. 

 

The deadly earthquake happened exactly 32 years after the 1985 Mexico quake that killed thousands. 

 

Mexico's President urged calm after the earthquake. He said the biggest priority now is to find people still missing and to give medical attention to those who are injured. However, that could take time as there are at least 44 buildings just in the capital that have collapsed. </s> A powerful 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing homes and bridges across hundreds of miles, killing at least 217 people and sending thousands more fleeing into the streets screaming in a country still reeling from a deadly temblor that struck less than two weeks ago.

Entire apartment blocks swayed violently in the center of Mexico City, including in the historic districts of El Centro and Roma, crumbling balconies and causing huge cracks to appear on building facades.

Panic spread through the city’s core; rescue vehicles raced toward damaged buildings, and neighbors took on heroic roles as rescuers.

UPDATE: Frantic search continues for survivors>>

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Firefighters and police officers scrambled to pull survivors from a collapsed elementary and secondary school where children died.

“There are 22 bodies here — two are adults — 30 children are missing and eight other adults missing. And workers are continuing rescue efforts,” President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Tuesday night.

At least 86 people were reported killed and 44 buildings severely damaged in the capital alone. Twelve other people died in the surrounding state of Mexico, 71 across the state of Morelos, 43 in Puebla state, four in Guerrero state and one in Oaxaca, according to Mexican officials.

The temblor struck 32 years to the day after another powerful earthquake that killed thousands and devastated large parts of Mexico City — a tragedy that Peña Nieto had commemorated earlier Tuesday.

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Around 11 a.m., Julian Dominguez heard alarms sounding in the neighborhood of Iztapalapa, part of a citywide drill to mark the anniversary of the magnitude 8.0 quake. Schools and other buildings evacuated, but he kept working at his computer.

About two hours later, Dominguez, 27, started to feel the building move, and alarms sounded again.

“It started really slowly,” he said, but within seconds it was clear that this was no drill.

Dominguez raced down a flight of stairs. Crowds of people already had gathered outside. Parents were crying, worried for their children still in school.

“It was strange that it fell on the same day … as another earthquake that caused so much damage,” Dominguez said.

The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City and dispatched 3,428 troops to affected areas there and in nearby states.

“We are facing a new emergency in Mexico City, in the state of Puebla and Morelos, following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake,” Peña Nieto said, adding that he had asked all hospitals to help care for the injured.

(Raoul Rañoa / Los Angeles Times)

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On Amsterdam Street, a normally tranquil road that rings a major park in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of Condesa, a large apartment building disintegrated into a pile of concrete and dust.

Hundreds of residents helped a team of soldiers, police officers and firefighters search the rubble for survivors. Many of the men were shirtless in the late summer heat, and everyone was covered with dust.

Juan Jose Martinez, 52, felt the earthquake at his home several miles away. There was no damage to his neighborhood, so he and three relatives grabbed shovels and construction helmets and set out on foot to Condesa.

“What else would we do?” he said. “This is our Mexico. Everybody needs help sometimes.”

Some rescuers commandeered shopping carts from a nearby supermarket and formed a human chain to haul away rubble. Several times, a warning went up about a possible aftershock or gas leak, sending hordes of panicked people running.

But there were few places that would be safe. Amsterdam, like many streets in Condesa, is narrow and lined with trees and power lines, all of which could turn deadly in an aftershock.

The neighborhood was filled with thousands of dazed survivors too afraid to return to their homes. They stood around holding their heads and checking social media feeds on their phones. Many ducked into their apartments to bring food and water for rescuers.

At Xochimilco, the famed series of canals plied by gaily decorated boats, the quake set off large waves that rocked the boats filled with tourists.

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1 / 69 The search continues for victims buried under the rubble of a fallen office building along Calle Alvaro Obregon in La Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 69 MEXICO CITY, -- SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2017: People look for relatives and loved ones on a list posted where families set up tents to camp along Calle Alvaro Obregon as the search continues for victims buried under the rubble in La Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City, on Sept. 24, 2017. A powerful 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing homes and bridges across hundreds of miles, killing at least 300 people. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 69 Susana Coronel Flores, whose nephew, Adrian Moreno, is missing in a collapsed building, sheds a tear as the search continues for victims buried under the rubble along Calle Alvaro Obregon in La Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 69 Residents stand in the street after the earthquake alarm sounded in Mexico City on Saturday morning before the shaking from a magnitude 6.1 aftershock in Oaxaca state reached the capital, causing buildings to sway. (Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press) 5 / 69 Rescue teams stop their work Saturday after the earthquake alert sounded in Mexico City, four days after the powerful quake that hit central Mexico. There were no immediate reports of major new damage or casualties in the capital. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images) 6 / 69 Residents evacuate apartment buildings in the Tlatelolco neighborhood after an earthquake alert sounded in Mexico City on Saturday morning, four days after the powerful quake that hit central Mexico. (AFP / Getty Images) 7 / 69 Leodegaria Comonfort Ramirez, 49, whose home was destroyed in the recent quake, has a fractured shoulder and now shares a home with her neighbors in Jojutla. Her daughter was killed when the second story of the building they lived in came down on her head. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 69 Margarita Martinez, left, shown with her children, sits where her home used to stand in the Mexican town of Jojutla, Morelos. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 69 Maria Elena Jimenez Arizmendi, 81, sits outside her destroyed home in Jojutla with a few of her belongings packed into plastic bags. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 69 Heróico Ayuntamiento, Jojutla’s local government office, suffered major structural damage in the recent earthquake. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 69 Volunteers remove rubble alongside the Mexican military, beginning the reconstruction process where a block of homes in Jojutla was destroyed by the recent quake. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 69 Maria de Pilar Paez Castillo, 69, receives medical attention outside a tent that she sleeps in near her damaged home in Jojutla. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 69 Clara Velazquez Camargo, 77, right, tells her son Arturo Perez she would prefer to stay in a tent at a shelter at the La Perseverancia sport complex in Jojutla. “I want to live; I am afraid to return to my son’s home,” she said. The shelter is housing 350 people. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 69 Neighbors place a tarp over part of the street near Leodegaria Comonfort Ramirez’s home, left, which was destroyed in the recent quake in Jojutla, killing Ramirez’s daughter. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 69 The reconstruction process begins as residents discard their personal items damaged by the recent quake in Jojutla. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 69 A worker repairs power lines next to Heróico Ayuntamiento, Jojutla’s local government office. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 69 A crane removes a concrete stairway from a collapsed building in the Colonia neighborhood in Mexico City. (Pedro Pardo / AFP/Getty Images) 18 / 69 People pin notes and flowers to a sidewalk memorial at a park in front of one of a collapsed building in Mexico City. (Luis Perez / AFP/Getty Images) 19 / 69 Family members embrace as they wait for news of their relatives outside a quake-collapsed seven-story building in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighborhood. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) 20 / 69 Japanese rescuers take part in the search for survivors at a flattened building in Mexico City three days after a strong quake hit central Mexico. (Yuri Cortez / AFP/Getty Images) 21 / 69 Soldiers and volunteers remove a car crushed by debris from a flattened building in Mexico City. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images) 22 / 69 Volunteer Elidia Marcos, 23, holds a sign asking for water, medicine and tools to aid victims of the earthquake in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 69 Volunteer Fernando Gedeño, 20, carries wood to be used to support the structure of the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school on Mexico City’s south side. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 69 Refugio Gonzalez, 85, left, is comforted by volunteer Lety Rebollar, 19, of Mexico state, in a shelter holding 460 people displaced by the earthquake at Centro Deportivo Benito Juarez sports complex in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 69 Rosalba Ramirez Vargas, center, and the prayer group “the Best Friends of Jesus” pray the rosary while anxiously waiting for news from rescue crews searching for children trapped in the rubble at Enrique Rebsamen school in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 69 A rescue worker listens for signs of a person trapped under the rubble of a building felled by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Mexico City’s Ciudad Jardin neighborhood. (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press) 27 / 69 The Mexican Army load ruble into dump trucks while rescue teams work at night continuing to look for people trapped underneath a collapsed six story residential building in Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 69 Rescue teams working at night continue to look for people trapped underneath the ruble of a collapsed six story residential building in Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 69 The Mexican Army along side civilians load debris while search and rescue continues for people in a collapsed six story residential building in Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 69 Members of the Mexican Navy look on while a search and rescue team ooks for victims under the rubble at a collapsed building where five people were found dead in Colonia Roma in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 69 Rescuers work at the top of a destroyed building in Mexico City trying to rescue a man two days after the magnitude 7.1 earthquake. (Pedro Mera / Getty Images) 32 / 69 A rescuer from Israel, center, takes part in the search for survivors in a flattened building in Mexico City two days after a strong quake hit central Mexico. (YURI CORTEZ / AFP/Getty Images) 33 / 69 Rescue services and volunteers raise their hands to ask for absolute silence during their search for victims under the debris of the school that collapsed in Mexico City. (JOSE MENDEZ / EPA / Shutterstock) 34 / 69 Mexico City residents scan the names of people who have been rescued and others who are still missing after the magnitude 7.1 earthquake. (Pedro Pardo / AFP/Getty Images) 35 / 69 An army of rescuers, firefighters, police, soldiers and volunteers search for survivors in a flattened building in Mexico City. (Mario Vazquez / AFP/Getty Images) 36 / 69 People who lost their homes in the earthquake rest inside a gymnasium turned in an evacuation center in Mexico City. (Jorge Dan Lopez / EPA/Shutterstock) 37 / 69 Rescuers search for survivors amid the rubble of a building flattened by the earthquake. (Pedro Pardo / AFP/Getty Images) 38 / 69 Volunteers await news as rescue teams look for people trapped beneath the rubble of a six-story residential building in Colonia Condesa, Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 69 Rescue teams use a blow torch on a slab of cement while looking for people trapped in the the rubble of a collapsed residential building in Mexico City Wednesday night. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 69 People anxiously wait for news from rescue crews as the search continues for children trapped in the rubble of Enrique Rebsamen School in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 69 Dairo Martinez, right, 15, looks for the name of his friend Reyna Davila, a student at Enrique Rebsamen School in Mexico City, on Sept. 20. The school collapsed in the 7.1 earthquake the day before. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 69 A pair of heavily damaged churches are left partially standing in Jojutla, Morelos state, Mexico, following a 7.1 earthquake that killed more than 200 people. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) 43 / 69 The sky is exposed from inside the Santiago Apostol Church, which collapsed during Tuesday’s 7.1 earthquake in the town of Atzala in Puebla state, Mexico. (Pablo Spencer / Associated Press) 44 / 69 The Santiago Apostol Church in Atzala, in Puebla state, suffered major damage during Tuesday’s 7.1 earthquake in Mexico. (Pablo Spencer / Associated Press) 45 / 69 Rescue workers search for people trapped inside a collapsed building in the Del Valle area of Mexico City. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) 46 / 69 A survivor is pulled from the rubble from a flattened building in Mexico City. (Pedro Pardo / AFP/Getty Images) 47 / 69 An aerial view shows a flattened building in Mexico City. The search for survivors was continuing a day after a powerful quake hit the central part of the country. (Mario Vazquez / AFP/Getty Images) 48 / 69 Rescuers use a dog to search for survivors who may be buried under the rubble of a building flattened by a 7.1 earthquake in Mexico City. (Diana Ulloa / AFP/Getty Images) 49 / 69 Search and rescue teams continue to remove rubble and look for people in a collapsed six-story residential building in Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 69 Search and rescue teams remove rubble at a collapsed six-story residential building in Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 69 Rescue workers search for children trapped inside the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school in Mexico City. (Carlos Cisneros / Associated Press) 52 / 69 Rescuers work at the Enrique Rebsamen school after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Mexico City. (EPA/Shutterstock ) 53 / 69 In this photo provided by Francisco Caballero Gout, shot through a window of the Torre Latina, dust rises over downtown Mexico City during a 7.1 earthquake Tuesday. (Francisco Caballero Gout / Associated Press) 54 / 69 Volunteers and rescue workers search for children trapped inside the Enrique Rebsamen school, collapsed by a powerful earthquake in Mexico City. (Miguel Tovar / Associated Press) 55 / 69 Alejandra Reynoso, left, and boyfriend Alejandro Gamez wait for news on Gamez’s sister Karen Nayeli, who is missing at a collapsed office building along Calle Alvaro Obregon in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 56 / 69 People look for family and friends on a list of people rescued from an office building in Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 57 / 69 Search and rescue workers continue looking for people trapped in a collapsed six-story residential building in Colonia Condesa, in Mexico City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 58 / 69 A car crushed by debris from a damaged building after a quake rattled Mexico City. (ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP/Getty Images) 59 / 69 Rescuers, firefighters, police officers, soldiers and volunteers remove rubble and debris from a flattened building in search of survivors after a powerful quake in Mexico City. (Yuri Cortez / AFP/Getty Images) 60 / 69 An injured man is pulled out of a building that collapsed during an earthquake in the Roma Norte neighborhood of Mexico City. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) 61 / 69 People try to rescue survivors from a collapsed building in Mexico City on Tuesday. (Sáshenka Gutiérrez / EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock) 62 / 69 People search for survivors in a collapsed building in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City on Tuesday. (Enric Marti / Associated Press) 63 / 69 A construction worker searches a building that collapsed in Mexico City. (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press) 64 / 69 Rescuers and volunteers remove rubble from a collapsed building in search of survivors in Mexico City. (Yuri Cortez / AFP / Getty Images) 65 / 69 A car is crushed by debris from a building damaged in the 7.1 magnitude temblor. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images) 66 / 69 Hospital patients receive medical treatment on a Mexico City street after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake centered in neighborhing Puebla state. (Jose Mendez / European Pressphoto Agency) 67 / 69 People in Mexico City remove debris after a building collapsed in a powerful earthquake on Tuesday. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images) 68 / 69 A security guard walks over debris of a collapsed building in the capital. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images) 69 / 69 People in Mexico City search a building that collapsed after a powerful earthquake centered southeast in neighboring Puebla state on Tuesday. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images)

In Roma, an upscale neighborhood that experienced some of the worst destruction in the 1985 earthquake, several low-rise buildings collapsed Tuesday. Among them was a commercial structure that housed a furniture store on the first floor.

Itzel Hernandez Galvan, 21, was in her car, about to head home from her job at a marketing firm, when she heard people screaming and realized that part of the building was about to collapse onto her car. She opened the door and ran as half of the building broke off, crushing her car and taking out trees and power lines.

“I ran, and I survived,” she said, still covered in dust. Others weren’t so lucky. Several people were buried alive, she said.

Rescue workers managed to pull at least eight survivors from the rubble, but Galvan said she saw a child who had been killed.

As a large crowd gathered, Mexican soldiers labored to clear away slabs of concrete. At one point, the soldiers thought they heard someone calling out for help from beneath the rubble and appealed for silence. But after some time, they determined that it was nothing.

Most people were at work or at school when the earthquake hit. Across the capital, the survivors poured into the streets to walk home, searching for information about loved ones and posting the names of the missing on trees and lampposts. Public transportation had ceased to function in a sprawling city so large it can take three hours to get home.

“It’s very horrendous,” said Guillermo Lozano, the humanitarian and emergency affairs director for World Vision Mexico, a Christian humanitarian organization. “Everything was moving — the stairs were moving, things were falling down.”

Among the destroyed buildings was a supermarket where survivors could be heard crying out for help, he said. Staff members at a children’s hospital were tending to patients in the streets.

Building standards have improved since the 1985 quake, Lozano said, but there are many old buildings in the city, which were among the worst-hit.

When the quake struck, he was in a meeting coordinating relief efforts for southern Mexico, where at least 90 people died in another powerful temblor on Sept. 7.

“We will need a lot of help,” Lozano said.

Authorities in Morelos reported major damage to the cities of Jojutla, Cuernavaca and Axochiapan.

“This is the first time in the history of Morelos that we have experienced something like this — a 7.1 magnitude earthquake,” the state governor, Graco Ramirez, told reporters. “We’re going to work hard overnight to try and rescue as many victims as we can find.”

He said Morelos was receiving assistance from other nearby states. “We’re all united and working together,” Ramirez said. “There is no doubt that we will recover from this.”

Mexico sits in one of the world’s most seismically active areas, as the floor of the Pacific Ocean south of the country is sliding underneath the North American plate. Mexico City is prone to major damage in earthquakes because it was built on an old lake bed, which amplifies the shaking.

The U.S. Geological Survey calculated the magnitude of Tuesday’s temblor at 7.1 and said the epicenter was about 80 miles southeast of Mexico City in the state of Puebla.

The city Puebla, about 60 miles southeast of Mexico City, also appeared to have suffered significant damage. Social media were filled with photographs of buildings that had collapsed into the streets, and there were reports that some of the city’s famed ornate churches, erected in the colonial era, had been damaged.

Susan Hough, a USGS seismologist, said the quake may have been related to the one that struck off the coast of Mexico’s Oaxaca state on Sept. 7, which the government calculated as a magnitude 8.2 and her agency as an 8.1.

“An 8.1 is big enough that having an aftershock this big and this distant — it isn’t too surprising,” Hough said. “It’s unusual, but it fits in with the picture that we’ve grown to understand.”

News of the latest disaster spread fear across the republic.

Mariela Alvarez, 30, was getting her nails done in San Vicente in the coastal state of Nayarit when she heard about the earthquake. She immediately thought of her 25-year-old sister, Gabriela Alvarez, who has lived in Mexico City for about five years.

She called her sister five times, growing more and more nervous every time she got her voicemail. “I imagined terrible things,” Mariela said. “I was really scared.”

She reached out to her father, who was at work. He told her that he had heard from Gabriela. She was fine.

“We could talk to her and so we feel calm, but there are people who still don’t know,” Mariela said.

As night fell, volunteers carried food, water, flashlights and other basics to people camping out in streets still littered with glass and debris.

As night fell on Mexico City, entire neighborhoods were plunged into darkness. Authorities begged residents in less affected areas to donate flashlights and lanterns so rescuers could keep working though the night.

Many were too frightened to return home and wandered the streets toting luggage and pets, looking for safer ground. Strangers offered strangers places to stay. They looked after one another.

In Condesa, an eight-story building threatened to collapse near an area where volunteers were collecting donations of food, water, batteries and flashlights. Despite fears of aftershocks — every few moments a panicked shout went up — the volunteers stayed on to help, working into the night.

Times staff writers Linthicum reported from Mexico City, Lin from San Francisco and Zavis and Vives from Los Angeles. Special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez and staff writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report from Mexico City and Nayarit, Mexico, respectively.

ALSO

Magnitude 3.6 earthquake near Westwood jolts parts of L.A.

Seismologists hope to create earthquake forecasts for California, using small temblors to warn of big ones

California could be hit by an 8.2 mega-earthquake, and damage would be catastrophic

Mexico got early warning before deadly earthquake struck. When will California get that system?

From the Archives 1985: Mexico City in Chaos as Buildings Fall; Death Toll Heavy

UPDATES:

4:25 a.m. Sept. 20: This article was updated with a revised death toll.

11:20 p.m.: This article was updated with a revised death toll.

9:25 p.m.: This article was updated with a new death toll and accounts from eyewitnesses.

7:45 p.m: This article was updated with the death toll rising to at least 139, a state of disaster declared in Mexico City and other details.

5:50 p.m.: This article was updated with the latest breakdown of casualties according to Mexico’s National Center for the Prevention of Disasters, details of the devastation and quotes from survivors.

4:05 p.m.: This article was updated with the death toll rising to at least 105.

3 p.m.: This article was updated with four deaths reported in Mexico City, description of the rescue efforts and other details.

1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with 42 deaths reported in Morelos.

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with two deaths reported and to include comments from Angel Mancera and Alfredo del Mazo.

12:50 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting.

12:35 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and background.

12:05 p.m.: This article was updated with a revised magnitude estimate and additional details.

This article was originally published at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 19. </s> MEXICO CITY (AP) — A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing some buildings, cracking the facades of others and scattering rubble on streets less than two weeks after another tremor killed at least 90 in the country’s south.

Mexican media broadcast images of several downed buildings in heavily populated parts of Mexico City and nearby Cuernavaca. A column of smoke rose from a structure in one central neighborhood in the capital. Dramatic video showed a mid-rise building collapsing into a cloud of dust. It was not clear whether there were people inside.

The quake caused buildings to sway sickeningly in Mexico City and sent panicked office workers streaming into the streets, but the full extent of the damage was not yet clear. There were no immediate reports of deaths.

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

Puebla Gov. Tony Gali tweeted that there had been damaged buildings in the city of Cholula including collapsed church steeples.

In Mexico City, thousands of people fled office buildings and hugged to calm each other along the central Reforma Avenue as alarms blared, and traffic stopped around the Angel of Independence monument.

Earlier in the day workplaces across the city held readiness drills on the anniversary of the 1985 quake, a magnitude 8.1 shake, which killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of Mexico City.

In the Roma neighborhood, which was hit hard by the 1985 quake, piles of stucco and brick fallen from building facades littered the streets. At least one large parking structure collapsed. Two men calmed a woman seated on a stool in the street, blood trickling form a small wound on her knee.

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

Market stall vendor Edith Lopez, 25, said she was in a taxi a few blocks away when the quake struck. She said she saw glass bursting out of the windows of some buildings. She was anxiously trying to locate her children, whom she had left in the care of her disabled mother.

Pictures fell from office building walls, objects were shaken off of flat surfaces and computer monitors toppled over. Some people dove for cover under desks. Local media broadcast video of whitecap waves churning the city’s normally placid canals of Xochimilco as boats bobbed up and down.

Mexico City’s international airport suspended operations and was checking facilities for any damage.

Much of Mexico City is built on former lakebed, and the soil is known to amplify the effects of earthquakes even hundreds of miles away.

The magnitude 8.1 quake that hit Sept. 7 of Mexico’s southern coast was also felt strongly in the capital.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> A powerful earthquake shook south and central Mexico Friday, causing people to flee buildings and office towers in the country's capital, and setting off quake alert systems.

Crowds of people gathered on central Reforma Avenue in Mexico City as the ground shook.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake's preliminary magnitude at 7.2 and said its epicenter was 33 miles (53 kilometers) northeast of Pinotepa in Oaxaca state. It had a depth of 15 miles (24 kilometers).

The epicenter is a rural area of western Oaxaca state near the Pacific coast and the border with Guerrero state.

The Oaxaca state civil protection agency said via Twitter that it was monitoring the coastline.

Mexico is susceptable to major earthquakes because it sits near the boundaries of three fault lines. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in central Mexico on Sept. 19 left 228 people dead in the capital and 369 across the region.

In 1985, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake reduced Mexico City to rubble, killing thousands. </s> A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing some buildings, cracking the facades of others and scattering rubble on streets less than two weeks after another tremor killed at least 90 in the country's south.

Mexican media broadcast images of several downed buildings in heavily populated parts of Mexico City and nearby Cuernavaca. A column of smoke rose from a structure in one central neighborhood in the capital. Dramatic video showed a mid-rise building collapsing into a cloud of dust. It was not clear whether there were people inside.

The quake caused buildings to sway sickeningly in Mexico City and sent panicked office workers streaming into the streets, but the full extent of the damage was not yet clear. There were no immediate reports of deaths.

The U.S. Geological Survey calculated its magnitude at 7.1 and said it was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles southeast of Mexico City.

Puebla Gov. Tony Gali tweeted that there had been damaged buildings in the city of Cholula including collapsed church steeples.

In Mexico City, thousands of people fled office buildings and hugged to calm each other along the central Reforma Avenue as alarms blared, and traffic stopped around the Angel of Independence monument.

Earlier in the day workplaces across the city held readiness drills on the anniversary of the 1985 quake, a magnitude 8.1 shake, which killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of Mexico City.

In the Roma neighborhood, which was hit hard by the 1985 quake, piles of stucco and brick fallen from building facades littered the streets. At least one large parking structure collapsed. Two men calmed a woman seated on a stool in the street, blood trickling form a small wound on her knee.

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

Market stall vendor Edith Lopez, 25, said she was in a taxi a few blocks away when the quake struck. She said she saw glass bursting out of the windows of some buildings. She was anxiously trying to locate her children, whom she had left in the care of her disabled mother.

Pictures fell from office building walls, objects were shaken off of flat surfaces and computer monitors toppled over. Some people dove for cover under desks. Local media broadcast video of whitecap waves churning the city's normally placid canals of Xochimilco as boats bobbed up and down.

Mexico City's international airport suspended operations and was checking facilities for any damage.

Much of Mexico City is built on former lakebed, and the soil is known to amplify the effects of earthquakes even hundreds of miles away.

The magnitude 8.1 quake that hit Sept. 7 of Mexico's southern coast was also felt strongly in the capital. </s> PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images(MEXICO CITY) — A 7.1 magnitude hit central Mexico Tuesday afternoon on the 32nd anniversary of the biggest earthquake to ever strike the country’s capital.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake struck at about 2:14 p.m. ET near the town of Raboso in Puebla state.

Tremors from the quake could be felt in Mexico City, about 76 miles northwest of the epicenter.

Shortly after the earthquake hit, Mexico’s national coordinator of civil protection tweeted that there were no reports of damage yet but that response teams had been activated.

Earlier in the day, earthquake drills were held in Mexico City to mark the anniversary of the Michoacán earthquake of 1985, which caused widespread death and injuries as well as catastrophic damage in Mexico City.

While some accounts place the epicenter of the 1985 earthquake in the state of Michoacán, about 200 miles west of Mexico City and a region of tectonic tension between the North American Plate and the Cocos Plate, other place the epicenter off the coast in the Pacific Ocean. </s> MEXICO CITY — A powerful 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mexico late Thursday night, killing at least five people and setting off tsunami warnings along the Pacific coast.

The epicentre of the quake 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. Many Mexicans were roused from bed by the quake and evacuated their shuddering apartment buildings in pyjamas and stocking feet.

The Mexican government ordered schools closed in the capital on Friday so that school infrastructure could be inspected after the quake.

Three people died in San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas state, including two women when their building collapsed, Gov. Manuel Velasco told Milenio TV, adding that the quake also damaged hospitals and schools.

Photos showed collapsed ceilings, flattened concrete buildings, and rubble from damage in southern cities such as Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Tonala.

Two children died in neighbouring Tabasco state, including an infant who perished when hospital electricity failed and the ventilator turned off, said Gov. Arturo Nunez.

Mexican authorities alerted the coastal states of Oaxaca and Chiapas of the possibility of destructive waves of higher than 13 feet. So far, though the Pacific Tsunami warning centre had only reported waves of about three feet off the coast of Mexico.

The U.S. 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. There was no tsunami threat for the West Coast of the United States, but the warning system said waves could reach as far as Ecuador.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Twitter that authorities have been instructed to meet immediately to evaluate the situation and respond to the quake.

Mexico City is one of the more earthquake-conscious capitals in the world, after a devastating 1985 earthquake caused widespread damage to the city and killed thousands. Many of the more modern buildings have been built to withstand severe tremors. In the seconds before the earthquake started late Thursday, earthquake warning sirens had blared throughout the capital.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes Mexico, killing at least 220 people and collapsing several buildings in Mexico City and widespread evacuations, hours after a yearly earthquake drill in commemoration of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.