Strong earthquake shakes Mexico, damaging buildings and causing panic

MEXICO CITY — On the anniversary of its deadly 1985 earthquake, Mexico City again shook with terrifying force on Tuesday, as a 7.1-magnitude temblor damaged buildings, knocked out power and caused alarm throughout the capital.

Just a couple of hours after a siren signaled an annual drill for this earthquake-prone city, the ground began to shake, walls buckled and residents fled into the streets. There were reports of fires and gas leaks and people possibly trapped in rubble.

The scope of the damage or possible casualties was not immediately clear. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was 76 miles southeast of the capital, in the state of Puebla.

In the southern neighborhood of Coyoacan, the walls of colonial-era buildings cracked and sagged, with some collapsing into rubble. Residents were embracing and crying in the streets. At the Barricas Don Tiburcio shop, shelves bearing food crashed down and wine bottles shattered on the floors.

“This is the worst one I have ever felt,” shopkeeper Beatriz Aguilar Bustamante said. “I don’t know if I will have a house when I go home.”

Earlier this month, one of the most powerful quakes in Mexico’s modern history, an 8.1 magnitude temblor off the coast of the Pacific, killed dozens of people and destroyed hundreds of buildings. The hardest-hit town was Juchitan, in southern Oaxaca state.

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