Earthquake leaves 23 dead amid rubble

A POWERFUL earthquake has ripped through western and central Mexico, killing at least 23 people and injuring about 160 as dozens of homes and buildings collapsed.

The death toll continued to rise last night as emergency crews surveyed the full extent of the damage hours after the ground had stopped shaking.

The Mexican Red Cross said 21 people had died in Colima, a small state about 300 miles (500km) west of Mexico City, and two others were killed in the neighbouring state of Jalisco.

The 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 8:07pm on Tuesday and was centred near the port of Manzanillo in Colima. The government declared a state of emergency in that state yesterday.

In the colonial city of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest, dozens of homes partially collapsed, and at least 20 people were injured by falling bricks and beams.

An elderly woman died in Zapotitlan, a Jalisco town about 85 miles (140km) south of Guadalajara, when she rushed out of her house and was crushed by a falling perimeter wall in her yard. A one-year-old girl also died during the quake in Zapotitlan.

Rescue teams organised in Guadalajara quickly set out for neighbouring Colima.

“The (Jalisco) governor has sent a team of 24 people specially trained in rescuing people missing or trapped in rubble in this kind of tragedy, because our brothers in Colima requested that,” said Trinidad Lopez Rivas, Jalisco civil defence director.

At least 140 people were injured across the state, said Governor Fernando Moreno Pena in Colima City, where rescue teams dug through reinforced concrete slabs twisted like sheets of paper and walls of brick that crumbled into rubble.

“We have had over a 100 people brought in for treatment, some with fractures and a few with very serious injuries,” said Tomas Castillo, a Red Cross commander in Colima. “We just had a report of someone trapped in rubble and the rescue team is heading out there.”

Television footage showed yellow-suited rescuers with headlights using their hands and small pneumatic drills to break through concrete floor slabs and pulling victims on stretchers from collapsed homes and apartments

“We are starting to receive help from the federal government now,” said Moreno Pena, noting that “a significant number of homes had been completely destroyed” in his state.

“We’re installing shelters, but the real problem will start today when we start determining which buildings will have to be evacuate,” he said.

Mexicans pulled together as they always have in earthquakes, with neighbours calling in reports of trapped victims and aiding in the rescue efforts.

Mexico’s national seismological service put the quake’s magnitude at 7.6, but the US Geological Survey calculated it at 7.8.