Residents were already on edge after devastating tremors left more than 400 dead

An aftershock with a magnitude of 6.1 has hit Mexico, just days after a devastating tremor left 295 people dead.

The US Geological Survey said it was centred about 11 miles (18km) from the town of Matias Romero in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Mexico's National Seismological Service recorded thousands of aftershocks just in the first nine and a half hours of Saturday, some of which measured 4.0 or greater.

Details on damage or injuries are not immediately clear, but Mexico City Mayor Miguel Mancera said residents were already on edge since last week's quake.

:: Why are there so many earthquakes in Mexico?

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Image: Buildings in Mexico City were severely damaged by an earlier earthquake

In the latest tremor, buildings swayed and a seismic alarm was set off in the capital where rescuers have been trying to reach people who remain buried in rubble from Thursday's quake.

Those rescuers have been forced to suspend their efforts.

"I heard the alarm and ran downstairs with my family," said Sergio Cedillo, a resident who was watching rescue efforts when the alarm sounded.

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Image: Specialist rescue teams continue to hunt for survivors

Alejandra Castellanos, who was staying in a hotel in the area with her husband, said she was "frightened" when she felt the earth shake for the second time in two weeks.

"I was frightened because I thought: not again," she said.

Southern Mexico was hit on 7 September by a huge 8.1 magnitude tremor.

The total number killed in the first two earthquakes is thought to be more than 400.

:: The forgotten quake victims outside Mexico City

Image: The Ring of Fire, along which 90% of the world's earthquakes occur

The Central American country suffers so much because of its position on a large grid of tectonic plates, on which all the Earth's countries and seas sit.

It also falls on the 'Ring of Fire', a horseshoe shaped area around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, from Australia to the Andes, along which 90% of all earthquakes occur.</s>Mexico City, September 22 – Mexico is still searching among the rubble for survivors of the powerful earthquake that struck central and southern Mexico on Tuesday. The earthquake has killed at least 286 people – including about 30 children – and the collapse of dozens of buildings in the capital. Citizens have turned to relief efforts after the earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, according to the National Seismological Service, which has had its epicenter 12 kilometers from Axochiapan (in the state of Morelos).

Citizen brigades have been created and many people have approached the landslides to collaborate with the rescuers, also to bring food and water. After the capital, Morelos and Puebla are the two most affected areas. In addition, several countries – including Spain, Israel, Colombia or Chile – have rushed to send aid teams.

A total of 272 school sites in Mexico City will be reviewed this Friday to learn about the effects of the earthquake. It is expected that the students of the capital, the State of Mexico, Guerrero, Morelos and Puebla will return to classes in a staggered manner starting next Monday, September 25.

The governor of the State of Mexico, Alfredo Del Mazo, visits the municipality of Ecatzingo, one of the most affected after 80% of the houses resulted in some type of damage. There are 13 dead and 800 collapsed houses in the whole state.

The earthquake also wreaks on Mexico’s historic buildings. The earthquake of Tuesday has shaken palaces, churches and ancient precincts of the country, constructions that suffered damages, mainly, in its decorative elements like cornices, gargoyles and statues.

In San Juan Pilcaya, Puebla there are serious problems. About 85% of the structures in this community are damaged. The region is 189 kilometers from the state capital.

Rescuers who have spent hours searching for people and bodies as well as rubble removal in the Taxqueña and Tlalpan multifamily communities south of Mexico City request through social networks of machinery and tools to continue working.

The Civil Protection Secretariat of Mexico City reported that there will be thunderstorms south of the capital, one of the areas affected by the earthquake. It is predicted that they will start at an interval of 20:00 to 23:00 hours.

Mexican authorities are asking the public to verify the information disseminated through social networks or applications such as WhatsApp, with the aim of avoiding the spread of rumors about the rescue work after the earthquake.

Silicon Valley’s large technology companies have donated the same amount – $ 1 million each. First was Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. That same morning Mark Zuckerberg showed his condolences, invited to donate and contributed a million of his pocket. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, tweeted in Spanish and put money himself.

The Metro transport system maintains its stable service and is free. According to the Government of Mexico City, Civil Protection has received 3,848 applications from people requiring a home damage review.

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) has authorized its more than 125 hospitals and clinics to the general public following the earthquake in Mexico. “We have run our infrastructure in the Valley of Mexico, our large hospitals are operating and serving people, there is infrastructure that we will continue to review, but we will not open any building that is not safe,” said general manager Mike Arriola.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) reports that there are no structural risks in its buildings. Only those areas that suffered minor damage due to the earthquake will be isolated.</s>MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.2 aftershock that shook Mexico on Saturday was blamed for five deaths, spreading fear among anxious residents reeling from a string of natural disasters and interrupting the search for survivors from a bigger tremor earlier this week.

The Popocatepetl volcano south of Mexico City sent a column of ash into the sky, capping an intense period of seismic activity including two powerful tremors this month that have killed more than 400 people and caused damage of up to $8 billion.

Mexico’s capital was shattered by Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake that flattened dozens of buildings and killed at least 307 people. The government’s response to the disaster is under close scrutiny ahead of a presidential election next year.

Although the latest quake was not as destructive, fear is running high among the population. Terrified residents ran into the streets, where they crouched and prayed as earthquake sirens went off. Two women died of heart attacks as the ground shook, the city government said.

Tents were set up in different parts of the city where psychologists offered mental health support to survivors and rescuers traumatized by the natural disasters. Acts of solidarity came from all corners of Mexican society.

Tuesday’s quake hit on the anniversary of a 1985 tremor that, by some estimates, killed 10,000 people.

Roxana Trani, a 30-year-old banker, was one of the thousands of young Mexicans who turned to social media to find out how to help. She joined one of the aid collection centers that popped up in Mexico City and traveled to Puebla state in one of many convoys flooding from the city to more isolated communities.

“I never understood why the people who suffered the ‘85 quake were so afraid of the slightest tremors. Now I get it,” Trani said.

“Being at a funeral and seeing all the pain that one minute caused has changed me,” she said.

FEAR OF COLLAPSE

Concern that the aftershock could cause further collapses paralyzed rescue efforts at a housing complex in the Tlalpan neighborhood of Mexico City, frustrating first responders who believed people were alive under the rubble.

Mexican and international rescue teams remove a painting as they search for survivors in a collapsed building after an earthquake, at Roma neighborhood in Mexico City, Mexico September 23, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

By the evening, hard-hatted first responders were again digging for bodies or survivors in a dwindling number of rubble heaps. Their work barely skipped a beat elsewhere when earthquake alarms twice rang out across the city.

The United States Geological Survey said the latest quake was relatively shallow with an epicenter near Juchitan, a tropical region of Oaxaca state hard hit by a massive 8.1 magnitude tremor that struck on Sept. 7.

Three people died in Oaxaca during Saturday’s tremor, including a man who was attacked by a swarm of wild bees, authorities said.

Mexico’s seismological authorities said it was an aftershock of the Sept. 7 tremor, which was the strongest to hit the country in 85 years and killed at least 98 people.

The Popocatepetl volcano, which is visible on a clear day to the approximately 20 million people who live in the Mexico City metropolitan region, spewed vapor and ash-filled gas after two small eruptions on Saturday.

Dozens of buildings were brought to the ground by Tuesday’s earthquake, while an army of trained rescuers helped by droves of volunteers frantically removed rubble in a day-and-night search for survivors.

Apartment buildings, offices, a school and a textile factory were among the structures flattened, leaving thousands homeless. The search had wound up at many sites by Saturday.

Officials said there could be some 30,000 badly damaged homes in the adjacent states of Morelos and Puebla. RMS, a risk modeling company, estimated economic losses of $4 billion to $8 billion.

Mexican volunteers, professionals and soldiers backed by teams from the United States and countries as far away as Japan and Chile have saved 69 people from the rubble after several days of searching. But in the past 48 hours rescuers have found more corpses than survivors, and frustration was mounting.

A government response seen as lacking in the disastrous 1985 temblor severely damaged the credibility of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Mexico is now better prepared to deal with the aftermath of earthquakes, thanks to disaster planning, civic groups, a stringent building code and communication technology.

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The government has run a massive search-and-rescue operation involving thousands of soldiers and police, but victims in outlying areas of the city and surrounding villages complained that aid has been slow to arrive.

“Here we have no help, everything is in the center (of the city),” said Justina Gonzalez, 55, a shopkeeper in the Xochimilco district in the far south of the city whose two-bedroom house fell down on Tuesday. She now lives in a tent and said neighbors were bringing her family food.

“We lost everything, we don’t even have a way to cook,” Gonzalez said.</s>OAXACA, Mexico — A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Oaxaca, Mexico, early Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake was located 4 miles from Lázaro Cárdenas in southern Oaxaca. USGS puts the depth at 32 kilometers.

This is the third major earthquake for Mexico within a month.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the new earthquake to strike Mexico had a magnitude of 6.1 and was centered in the southern state of Oaxaca. It initially calculated the magnitude as 6.2

The director of Mexico’s disaster agency says it’s an aftershock of the 8.1 quake that hit on Sept. 7 off the country’s southern coast.

The new quake also swayed buildings in Mexico City, which is trying to recover from a magnitude 7.1 temblor that struck on Thursday, killing at least 295 people.

It’s not immediately clear if the new quake caused damage or injury.</s>OAXACA, Mexico — A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Oaxaca, Mexico, early Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake was located 4 miles from Lázaro Cárdenas in southern Oaxaca. USGS puts the depth at 32 kilometers.</s>The state of Oaxaca was hit with a new 6.1 magnitude earthquake on Saturday morning, just days after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake which rocked Mexico City.

While details are still coming in, we do know that the epicenter of the earthquake was 275 miles southeast of Mexico City, located roughly between the previous two earthquakes that happened in Mexico earlier this month. This morning’s earthquake was not felt in Mexico City.</s>A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck southwest Mexico on Saturday morning, not far from where a deadly quake hit roughly two weeks ago off, officials said.

The temblor began just before 8 a.m. local time in the state of Oaxaca, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was reported 46 miles northwest of the coastal town of Salina Cruz and 122 miles from the state capital Oaxaca.

People in Mexico City reported feeling the swaying and believed it was an aftershock, but USGS has not reported any seismic activity in the area near Puebla, where a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck on Tuesday, killing 295 people in the region.

Buildings in the nation's capital remain unstable and its residents were already harrowed by a tireless search and rescue effort. KTLA's Christina Pascucci, who has been reporting from Mexico City, said she was trying to catch up on sleep Saturday morning when she was shaken awake on the fourth floor of her hotel.

“I was trying to sleep in a little bit and all of a sudden I woke up in grogginess and everything was creaking, swaying, and I could tell it was strong but I was so confused," she said. "I looked out and I saw all the movement outside and I heard the alarms, and my cameraman came and pounded on the door and said, ‘Earthquake, let’s go.’ ”

Once outside, a large group of people stood assembled, hugging.

“I mean, it was pretty strong," Pascucci said. "Not like anything they experienced on Tuesday, but I’m still shaking.”

“It was big enough for us to know it was big,” she said, but from what she saw not powerful enough knock to people over.

Southeast Mexico has seen a flurry of seismic activity in recent weeks, especially following an 8.1 magnitude temblor that hit Sept. 7, killing about 90 people and rendering many in the region homeless. An earthquake struck most recently near Oaxaca on Tuesday, the same day as the larger one that badly damaged Mexico City.

Check back for updates on this developing story.</s>MEXICO – The U.S. Geological Survey says the new earthquake to strike Mexico had a magnitude of 6.1 and was centered in the southern state of Oaxaca. It initially calculated the magnitude as 6.2

The director of Mexico’s disaster agency says it’s an aftershock of the 8.1 quake that hit on Sept. 7 off the country’s southern coast.

The new quake also swayed buildings in Mexico City, which is trying to recover from a magnitude 7.1 temblor that struck on Thursday, killing at least 295 people.

It’s not immediately clear if the new quake caused damage or injury.

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.</s>A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck off the Mexican west coast on Sunday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

The epicenter of the quake was 99 km south-southwest of Tonala, in Chiapas state.

Mexico’s capital was shattered by a magnitude 7.1 quake on Tuesday that flattened dozens of buildings and killed at least 307 people.

READ MORE: Third earthquake hits Mexico in September, this time of magnitude 6.8

READ MORE: At least 230 people killed after major 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes near Mexico City

READ MORE: Hurricane Katia followed Mexico’s most powerful earthquake in almost a century</s>Sept 23 (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck southeast of the town of Matías Romero in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Slight quake tremors were felt, and seismic alarms sounded on Saturday in Mexico City, which earlier this week was hit by the country's most deadly earthquake in decades.

That 7.1 magnitude earthquake destroyed more than 50 buildings in the sprawling Mexican capital on Tuesday, leaving thousands homeless and close to 300 people dead nationwide.
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes the central Mexican state of Oaxaca killing at least five people and damaging housing and infrastructure already damaged by Tuesday's 2017 Central Mexico earthquake.