WORLD / AMERICAS
Strong quake shakes Mexico, leaving 2 dead
Published: Sep 22, 2022 08:42 PM
A strong earthquake jolted Mexico on Thursday, leaving at least two people dead as residents rushed into the streets of the capital in the middle of the night days after another powerful tremor.

A woman died in Mexico City after falling down some stairs and hitting her head when the quake triggered early warning alarms, while a second victim in the capital suffered a heart attack, authorities said.

The epicenter of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake was near the Pacific coast, 84 kilometers south of Coalcoman in the western state of Michoacan, the national seismological agency reported.

The US Geological Survey estimated the magnitude at 6.8.

It was the strongest of more than 1,200 aftershocks from a magnitude 7.7 quake that struck the same area on Monday, the national seismological agency said.

That tremor left two people dead in western Mexico, damaged several thousand buildings and sparked panic more than 400 kilometers away in Mexico City.

The latest quake again triggered alarms in the capital shortly after 1:00 am (06:00 GMT) and caused buildings to shake and sway.

Monday's tremor came less than an hour after millions of people in Mexico City participated in emergency drills on the anniversary of two deadly earthquakes in 1985 and 2017.

On September 19, 1985, an 8.1-magnitude quake killed more than 10,000 people.

On the anniversary of that earthquake in 2017, a magnitude 7.1 quake left around 370 people dead, mainly in the capital.