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UPDATE: Death toll at 217 and rising after Mexico earthquake

(UPDATE: September 20th @ 6:30 a.m.) - The death toll continues to rise following Tuesday's magnitude-7.1 earthquake in Mexico.

According to Luis Felipe Puente, head of the National Civil Defense Agency, there are now 217 confirmed deaths.

The most frantic rescue efforts are taking place at a pair of collapsed schools in southern Mexico City.

At Enrique Rebsamen School, there are already 20 confirmed deaths of children and at least 30 remain missing.

(UPDATE: September 19th @ 6:50 p.m.) - Luis Felipe Puente, head of the national Civil Defense agency has confirmed that the death toll has risen to 139 people after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit central Mexico on Tuesday.

The Ministry of National Defense in Mexico is activating a plan to provide immediate assistance to the affected population.

They have deployed 3,428 military personnel as well as 15 canopy binomials fro search and rescue operations.

(UPDATE: September 19th @ 1:30 p.m.) - Local media outlets are reporting five casualties following another earthquake in Mexico.

Those are the first reports of casualties, but the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is expecting that number to end up in triple figures.

<who>Photo Credit: USGS


Local government reports that there are many people trapped in collapsed buildings throughout Mexico City.

The USGS also estimates the economic losses to be in the hundreds of millions, although that would be less than 1% of Mexico's gross domestic product.

(UPDATE: September 19th @ 1 p.m.) - There are still no casualties reported after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake shook Mexico on Tuesday morning.


That could change, however, due to a number of building collapses in Mexico City.

Video posted to Twitter also shows a building in the country's capital exploding from an apparent gas leak after the earthquake.


Mexico City's airport remains closed and evacuated as officials inspect the runways and deal with other damage to the terminals.

On this day in 1985, Mexico was struck by a magnitude-8.0 earthquake that killed 5,000 people.

(UPDATE: September 19th @ 12:10 p.m.) - More information is slowly coming out about the magnitude-7.1 earthquake that rocked Mexico on Tuesday morning.

The earthquake's epicentre was at 18.584°N, 98.399°W, which is 5 km east of the 3,649 person town of San Juan Raboso and 175 km southeast of Mexico City.


Heavy shaking was felt in Mexico City and there has been video evidence of a number of collapsed buildings, which are likely concealing a number of trapped victims.

The earthquake has also caused damage to Mexico City International Airport, which is now closed while they inspect the runways.

(Original story: September 19th @11:50 p.m.) - Another powerful earthquake has struck Mexico.

The magnitude-7.1 earthquake comes less than two weeks after the country was shaken by a magnitude-8.2 earthquake.


This time, the tremor was a lot closer to Mexico City, located about 150 km south of the nation’s capital in Raboso, Mexico.

Videos have already surfaced on Twitter of buildings collapsing in Mexico City, but there aren’t many reports of what kind of damage there is closer to the earthquake’s epicentre.


According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake was 51 km deep.

Tuesday’s earthquake comes on the 32 year anniversary of the magnitude-8.0 earthquake that devastated Mexico on September 19th, 1985.

KelownaNow will continue to update this breaking story as information becomes available.



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