MEXICO CITY (AP) — A robust earthquake rattled southern and central Mexico on Friday, interrupting President Claudia Sheinbaum ’s first press briefing of the brand new 12 months as seismic alarms sounded and leaving at the very least two folks useless.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.5 and its epicenter was close to the city of San Marcos within the southern state of Guerrero close to the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, in keeping with Mexico ’s nationwide seismological company. There have been greater than 500 aftershocks.
The state’s civil protection company reported numerous landslides round Acapulco and on different highways within the state.
Guerrero Gov. Evelyn Salgado stated {that a} 50-year-old girl residing in a small neighborhood close to the epicenter died when her residence collapsed. Authorities additionally stated {that a} hospital in Chilpancingo, Guerrero’s capital, suffered main structural harm and numerous sufferers had been evacuated.
Residents and vacationers in Mexico Metropolis and Acapulco rushed into the streets when the shaking started. Mexico Metropolis Mayor Clara Brugada stated that one particular person died after struggling an obvious medical emergency adopted by a fall whereas evacuating a constructing.
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The U.S. Geological Survey stated the earthquake occurred at a depth of 21.7 miles (35 kilometers), 2.5 miles north-northwest of Rancho Viejo, Guerrero, which is within the mountains about 57 miles northeast of Acapulco.
Sheinbaum resumed her press briefing a short while after the quake.
José Raymundo Díaz Taboada, a health care provider and human rights defender who lives on one of many peaks ringing Acapulco, stated he heard a powerful rumble noise and all of the neighborhood canines started barking.
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“In that second the seismic alert went off on my cellphone,” he stated, “after which the shaking started to really feel robust with loads of noise.”
He stated the shaking was lighter than in some earlier quakes and he had ready a backpack of necessities to be prepared to depart because the aftershocks continued.
He stated he had been unable to succeed in some pals who reside alongside the Costa Chica southeast of Acapulco as a result of communications had been reduce.
