Mexico earthquake leaves more than 200 dead, searches continue into evening

Desperate parents and rescue workers have pulled through rubble in a floodlit search for dozens of young children feared buried under a Mexico City school destroyed by the country's most lethal earthquake in a generation.

Key points:

Residents digging through rubble to save neighbours
Millions without power, people trapped in burning buildings
Comes on anniversary of the quake that killed thousands in Mexico City in 1985
Among the twisted concrete and steel ruin of the Enrique Rebsamen school, soldiers and firefighters found 22 dead children and two adults, while another 30 children and 12 adults were missing, President Enrique Pena Nieto said.

The magnitude-7.1 shock killed more than 200 people — nearly half of them in the capital — on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands, and less than two weeks after a powerful tremor killed nearly 100 people in the south of the country.

Mexico's Government said the death toll had been revised down to 216. It was earlier said to be as high as 248.

There were chaotic scenes at the school as parents clung to hope their children had survived.
They keep pulling kids out, but we know nothing of my daughter," said 32-year-old Adriana D'Fargo, her eyes red after hours waiting for news of her seven-year-old.

Three survivors were found at around midnight (local time).

"Relatives of Fatima Navarro," one soldier shouted through cupped hands at the school the Coapa district in the south of the city. "Fatima is alive!"

The earthquake toppled dozens of buildings, broke gas mains and sparked fires across the city and other towns in central Mexico. Falling rubble and billboards crushed cars.

Parts of colonial-era churches crumbled in the state of Puebla, to the south of the capital, where the US Geological Survey (USGS) located the quake's epicentre.

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.

Millions without power, dozens of buildings severely damaged

Tens of thousands of people ran into the streets in panic, and millions lost electricity when the quake struck around lunchtime.

Sirens blared as first responders rushed through the streets of Mexico City, and people scrambled amid the ruins of buildings, searching for survivors.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said 44 buildings were severely damaged or destroyed. Several major gas leaks and fires occurred.

The quake hit only hours after many people participated in earthquake drills around the nation on the anniversary of the devastating quake that killed thousands in Mexico City in 1985.
"A drill at 11:00am and an earthquake at 1:00pm," 23-year-old student Valerie Perez said.
"This is the most powerful thing I have ever seen in my life."
Australian Peter Davies, who lives in downtown Mexico City, was at home when the quake struck and hurried out of his six-storey building as quickly as he could.

"I was running down stairs, it probably took me a couple of minutes and the quake ... was still shaking when I got out to the street for probably a minute-and-a-half or two after I first left my apartment," he told the ABC.

Sources : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-20/mexico-earthquake-strong-tremor-hits-people-trapped/8962522