MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico appeared Saturday to have escaped major destruction after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake rattled the country, but it rekindled fears in a population that still sees daily reminders of deadly earthquakes that struck five months ago. In Pinotepa, there were two people injured and in the city of Santiago Jamiltepec, close to the epicentre, there were 50 houses damaged and the main hospital has suffered damages that affect its normal functioning. The national electricity commission said nearly 1 million users lost power, but it was expected to be restored over the course of the day. A military helicopter carrying Mexico’s interior minister and the governor of the southern state of Oaxaca has crashed, killing two people during a tour of damage from an earthquake earlier in the day, but the senior officials survived. The Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that five women, four men and three children were killed at the crash site and another person died later at the hospital. A state government official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said the chopper crashed into a group of people who had been spending the night in an open field, fearful of returning to their homes as aftershocks continued to shake the terrain hours later. When the quake struck Friday, Maricarmen Trujillo was on the same eighth floor of a Mexico City office building where she rode out a Sept. 19 earthquake that killed 228 people in the capital alone. President Enrique Pena Nieto said via Twitter that both officials and crew were fine, but some people on the ground had been killed or injured. Alejandro Murat, neither of whom had serious injuries

A military helicopter carrying Mexico's interior secretary and a state governor who were assessing damage from a powerful earthquake has crashed in the southern state of Oaxaca, killing two people on the ground. Panicked residents flooded into the streets, fearing a repeat of the two quakes last September, which caused buildings to collapse and killed a total of 465 people. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 7.2 and said its epicenter was a rural area of southern Oaxaca state near the Pacific Coast and the border with Guerrero state. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake's preliminary magnitude at 7.2 and said its epicenter was 33 miles (53 kilometers) northeast of Pinotepa in Oaxaca state. 
• None An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 at a depth of 24 km occurred in the State of Oaxaca, southern Pacific Coast of Mexico, on 16 February at 23:39 UTC. It’s all we can do.” On the north side of the city, Julia Hernandez said she felt like she was “in a boat” as the ground swayed beneath her feet.
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes near the town of Pinotepa Nacional and is widely felt across Southern and Central Mexico, causing material damages in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Mexico City. It is followed by a 5.8-magnitude aftershock.