Families mourn victims of earthquake as clean-up begins

VICENTE RODRIGUEZ sat beside his mother’s coffin, barely noticing the crews noisily shovelling away the remains of homes levelled by an earthquake that killed at least 25 people in Mexico.

“I did what I could to save her but it was useless,” he said as friends and relatives embraced him at an outdoor memorial for 83-year-old Maria Rodriguez Macia.

Maria Rodriguez was one of at least 25 people killed in the quake, which injured 300 people and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes.

President Vicente Fox toured the devastated neighbourhoods on Wednesday, promising to help rebuild the houses from newer, stronger materials that would withstand the force of future quakes.

Mexico’s national seismological service put the quake’s magnitude at 7.6.