MEXICO CITY, Sept 8: (Xinhua) – A powerful earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale struck off Mexico’s southern coast late Thursday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The epicenter is 96 km southwest of the town of Pijijiapan in the Mexican state of Chiapas, at a depth of 33 km.The shock was also felt in the capital of Mexico City, where many people ran out of buildings onto the streets.

People said the shock lasted for about dozens of seconds and the windows and beds in some buildings were shaking when the quake occurred.Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told local media that there are electrical outages but no reports of collapsed buildings or deaths.

Firefighters and police have been on inspection tours around the capital to check for any damage caused by the quake. The southern Mexican state of Chiapas bordering Guatemala suffered severer damage than the capital according to pictures posted by Twitter users showing that some houses collapsed or cracked.

A picture posted by “Periodico Coleccion” on Twitter shows that the roof of a shopping mall in Chiapas was severely damaged, with part of it falling on the ground.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said the national emergency-response system has been activated and instructions have been issued to local governments to undertake monitoring and rescue operations.

The earthquake is the strongest in Mexico since 1985 when a magnitude-8.0 quake hit Mexico City that killed thousands of people and destroyed large parts of the capital. RSS

photo: google