Rescue workers scrabbled through rubble as dawn broke on Wednesday, searching for dozens of children feared buried beneath a Mexico City school, among hundreds of buildings destroyed by the country’s most lethal earthquake in a
generation.
The
magnitude 7.1 quake on Tuesday killed at least 217 people, nearly half
of them in the capital, 32 years to the day after a devastating 1985
quake. The disaster came as Mexico was still reeling from a powerful
tremor that killed nearly 100 people in the south of the country less
than two weeks ago.
Among the twisted concrete
and steel ruin of the Enrique Rebsamen school, soldiers and firefighters
found the bodies of at least 22 children and two adults, while another
30 children and 12 adults were missing, President Enrique Pena Nieto
said. The school is for children aged 3 to 14.
Hundreds
of emergency workers spent the night pulling rubble from the ruins of
the grade school with their bare hands under the glare of floodlights.
Three survivors were found at around midnight as volunteer rescue teams
known as “moles” crawled deep under the rubble.
On
Wednesday morning, the workers said a teacher and two students had sent
text messages from within the rubble. Parents clung to hope that their
children were alive.
“They keep pulling kids
out, but we know nothing of my daughter,” said 32-year-old Adriana
D‘Fargo, her eyes red, who had waiting for hours for news of her
seven-year-old.
The earthquake toppled dozens
of buildings, tore gas mains and sparked fires across the city and other
towns in central Mexico. Falling rubble and billboards crushed cars.
In a live broadcast, one newsreader had time to say “this is not a drill,” before weaving his way out of the buckling studio.
Parts
of colonial-era churches crumbled in the state of Puebla, where the
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) put the quake’s epicenter some 100 miles
(158 km) southwest of the capital, at a depth of 51 km (32 miles).
As
the earth shook, Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano, visible from the
capital on a clear day, had a small eruption. On its slopes, a church in
Atzitzihuacan collapsed during mass, killing 15 people, Puebla Governor
Jose Antonio Gali said.
In Rome, Pope Francis
told pilgrims he was praying for the victims, the wounded, their
families and the rescue workers in the majority Catholic country. “In
this moment of pain, I want to express my closeness and prayers to all
the beloved Mexican people,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet: “God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.”
NIGHT SEARCHES
Residents
of Mexico City, a metropolis of some 20 million people, slept in the
streets while authorities and volunteers distributed food and water at
tented collection centers.
Other volunteers, soldiers and firefighters formed
human chains and dug with hammers and picks to find dust-covered
survivors and dead bodies in the remains of apartment buildings, schools
and a factory.
Some volunteers in Mexico City
expressed frustration at the disorganization among military and
civilian emergency services, which competed over who would lead the
rescue efforts.
“There is so much bureaucracy
and so many obstacles in the way of getting these kids out alive,” said
Alfredo Perez, 52, a freelance civil engineer, who arrived at the
Enrique Rebsamen school in the early hours of the morning to help.
The
middle-class neighborhood of Del Valle was hit hard, with several
buildings toppling over on one street. Reserve rescue workers arrived
late at night and were still pulling survivors out early Wednesday.
(TheReuters)
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