One of the most powerful earthquakes ever to strike Mexico has hit off its southern coast, killing at least 15 people, toppling houses and businesses and sending panicked people into the streets more than 650 miles (1,000 kilometers) away.The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake hit off Chiapas state near the Guatemalan border with a magnitude as 8.1 - equal in force to the 1985 quake that killed thousands and devastated large parts of Mexico City.Officials said at least five people died, but the death toll could rise as authorities assess the damage. The quake caused buildings to sway violently in Mexico's capital more than 650 miles away, and people still wearing nightclothes fled into the streets, gathering in frightened groups. "The house moved like chewing gum and the light and internet went out momentarily," said Rodrigo Soberanes, who lives near the Chiapas state city of San Cristobal de las Casas.The U.S. Geological Survey recorded at least 20 aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or greater within about five hours after the main shake, and the president warned that a major aftershock as large as magnitude 7.2 could occur.The USGS said the quake struck at 11:49 p.m. Thursday (12:49 a.m. EDT ; 0449 GMT Friday) and its epicenter was 102 miles (165 kilometers) west of Tapachula in Chiapas. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Katia was likely to strike the Gulf coast in the state of Veracruz early Saturday as a Category 2 storm that could bring life-threatening floods.In neighboring Guatemala, President Jimmy Morales spoke on national television to call for calm while emergency crews checked for damage. Mexico's capital escaped major damage, but the quake terrified sleeping residents, many of whom still remember the catastrophic 1985 earthquake that killed thousands and devastated large parts of the city. Hundreds of buildings collapsed or were damaged, power was cut at least briefly to more than 1.8 million people and authorities closed schools Friday in at least 11 states to check them for safety. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake measured 8.1 on the Richter scale, but Mexican President Enrique Nieto on Twitter said the latest measures put the earthquake at 8.2, making it the “the strongest in nearly a century.”

The earthquake triggered a small tsunami, with waves of about 2.3 feet. These subduction zones are responsible for producing some of the biggest quakes in history, including the 2011 Fukushima disaster and the 2004 Sumatra quake that spawned a deadly tsunami. President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday evening in a televised address that 61 people were killed -- 45 in Oaxaca state, 12 in Chiapas and 4 in Tabasco -- and he declared three days of national mourning. I nearly fell over.”

Three were killed in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost and poorest state, according to Puente, and 10 have died in Oaxaca. The quake hit offshore in the Pacific at 11.49 p.m. (0449 GMT), about 100 kilometres from the coastal town of Tonala, in far southern Chiapas state, Mexico’s seismologic service said. The US Geological Survey recorded at least 20 aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or greater within about five hours, and the president warned that a major aftershock as large as magnitude 7.2 could occur. Teams found bodies in the rubble, but the highlight was pulling four people, including two children, alive from the completely collapsed Hotel Del Rio where one woman died. "There is damage to hospitals that have lost energy," he said. The Interior Department reported that 428 homes were destroyed and 1,700 were damaged just in Chiapas, the state closest to the epicenter. Luis Manuel García Moreno, the secretary of civil defence for the state of Chiapas, said the toll there had risen to seven, and two children died in the state of Tabasco, one when a wall collapsed, the other after a respirator lost power in a hospital. One of them was killed when a wall collapsed, and the other was a baby who died in a children's hospital that lost electricity, cutting off the infant's ventilator.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said waves of one meter (3.3 feet) above the tide level were measured off Salina Cruz, Mexico. Smaller tsunami waves were observed on the coast or measured by ocean gauges in several other places. The US Tsunami Warning System said hazardous tsunami waves were possible on the Pacific coasts of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras within three hours. “We are all collapsed, our homes and our people,” said Rosa Elba Ortiz Santiago, 43, who sat with her teenage son and more than a dozen neighbours on an assortment of chairs. He said the unconfirmed death occurred in San Marcos state near the border with Mexico.The quake occurred in a very seismically active region near the point of collision between three tectonic plates, the Cocos, the Caribbean and the North American.Mexico's National Seismological Service said the area has seen at least six other quakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater since 1900 - though three of those all occurred within a nerve-wracking nine-month span in 1902-1903.
The death toll in the earthquake that struck the Chiapas region of Mexico rises to 90.