Mexicans Dig Through Rubble Seeking Survivors as Quake Kills At Least 248

(MEXICO CITY) — Rescuers and volunteers frantically dug through the rubble of collapsed schools, homes and apartment buildings long into the night, looking for survivors of Mexico’s deadliest earthquake since 1985 as the number of confirmed fatalities climbed to 248 early Wednesday. Adding poignancy and a touch of the surreal, Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake struck on the 32nd anniversary of the earlier temblor that killed thousands and came just two hours after earthquake drills were held across Mexico to mark the date. One of the most desperate rescue efforts was at a primary and secondary school in southern Mexico City, where a wing of the three-story building collapsed into a massive pancake of concrete floor slabs. At the scene, journalists saw rescuers pull at least two small, sheet-covered bodies from the rubble. The federal Education Department reported late Tuesday night that 25 bodies had been recovered from the school’s wreckage, all but four of them children. It was not clear whether the deaths were included in the overall death toll of 248 reported by the federal civil defense agency. During a visit to the site earlier in the night, President Enrique Pena Nieto had reported 22 bodies found and said 30 children and eight adults were reported missing at that point. A mix of neighborhood volunteers, police and firefighters used trained dogs and their bare hands to search through the school’s rubble. Reports swept through the crowd of anx...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Mexico onetime Source Type: news