Toll in Mexico earthquake climbs to 273

Mexico City, Sept 22: The toll from Tuesday’s powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Mexico has climbed to 273, officials said. Half of the deaths occurred in the capital Mexico City, where nearly 40 buildings collapsed, and the remainder in surrounding and nearby states.

According to a release from the tiol civil protection agency on Thursday, 137 people were killed in the capital, 73 in Morelos state, 43 in Puebla state, 13 in the State of Mexico, six in Guerrero state and one person in Oaxaca state, Xinhua news agency reported. The toll is likely to rise as rescue operations continue and bodies are retrieved from the rubble of buildings destroyed by the quake, the agency said.

The local government, he added, has declared the city to be in a state of disaster to facilitate federal funding for the reconstruction effort. Some 5,000 residents forced from their homes are currently at 47 temporary shelters opened around the city, he said. The number of buildings that collapsed stands at 38, while the number of buildings that sustained damaged has risen to 2,900, he said. (IANS)