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(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.
Video shows 2 young children being pulled alive from a collapsed school building in Mexico City pic.twitter.com/6RwhDSHI2z
— BNO News (@BNONews) September 20, 2017
(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.
#FuerzaMexico Continúan labores de rescate y apoyo a población. Trabajo en equipo permitió rescatar a persona debajo de escombros #CDMX pic.twitter.com/gpHw0mFhYt
— Policía Federal Mx (@PoliciaFedMx) September 20, 2017
(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.
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.
— Carla (@carl_akeegs) September 19, 2017
(UPDATE: September 19th @ 1 p.m.) - There are still no casualties reported after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake shook Mexico on Tuesday morning.
Crazy video. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake shakes Mexico City and brings down buildings pic.twitter.com/yDbe99sCQj
— Brandon Pope TV (@BpopeTV) September 19, 2017
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.
Video captures building exploding after a 7.1 Earthquake strikes Mexico City. Please pray for Mexico. pic.twitter.com/tOytBnYQuR
— Mauricio Cantu (@mcantu06) September 19, 2017
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.
U.S. Geological Survey says it calculates earthquake as magnitude 7.1 with epicentre near Raboso around 76 miles southeast of Mexico City pic.twitter.com/ndEBi2fRJf
— Global News (@GlobalZarfati) September 19, 2017
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.
Vídeo del #Sismo en la #CDMXpic.twitter.com/XHdvZTo7BI
— Alberto Serrano L. (@Serrano_Lorence) September 19, 2017
#BREAKING: A building has collapsed in Colonia Condesa area of Mexico City. pic.twitter.com/tMbRq93KZB
— BreakingNNow (@BreakingNNow) September 19, 2017
Retweeted Jorge Guajardo (@jorge_guajardo):
— Steel Edward Vazquez (@steel_edward) September 19, 2017
Mexico City airport after earthquake. pic.twitter.com/G18yU8iKyi https://t.co/y4Uqi1taY9
(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.
BREAKING: Mexico City rocked by 7+ magnitude earthquake. pic.twitter.com/6lP4LrBqyA
— Based Monitored 🇺🇸 (@BasedMonitored) September 19, 2017
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.
Temblor en México hace unos minutos muy fuerte espero todos bien. Edificios se desplomaron!! 😢😢😢 @lopezdoriga @eltlacuache40 pic.twitter.com/jWmMz6h6IG
— BARRO (@Barro_oficial) September 19, 2017
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.
MEXICO: A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake has shaken Mexico City. Social media posts show dust and smoke rising from several buildings. pic.twitter.com/ywiHvP4H8P
— Behind The News (@Behind__News) September 19, 2017
Mexico City's Airport after the 7.4 Earthquake pic.twitter.com/b9euuiOumX
— Carla (@carl_akeegs) September 19, 2017
A magnitude-7.1 #earthquake just shook Mexico with the epicenter of the quake being just southeast of Mexico City, according to the @USGS. pic.twitter.com/R6rzg2OpNp
— AccuWeather (@breakingweather) September 19, 2017
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