Ns News Online Desk: MEXICO CITY: A 7.2 magnitude quake rocked Mexico on Friday, a prolonged rumble that the government said had caused minor damage to buildings in the southern state of Oaxaca, but with no preliminary reports of deaths.
The epicenter was about 90 miles (145 km) from Pacific coast surfer resort Puerto Escondido in the southern state of Oaxaca and had a depth of 15.3 miles (24.6 km), according to the US Geological Survey. Both the south of Mexico and the capital are still reeling from earthquakes that caused widespread damage in September and the powerful, sustained shaking on Friday caused widespread panic.
Patricia Gutierrez, a 66-year-old English teacher, was taking a nap with her 11-month-old granddaughter, Juliet, when she heard an earthquake alarm in Mexico City. “She recognized the sound. When I opened my eyes, I saw her eyes in terror. Her eyes were wide, like plates. She didn’t say anything,” Gutierrez said of her granddaughter.
Gutierrez managed to leave her ground floor apartment before the quake began. “I left the phone and everything except for my shoes and the baby,” she said. Authorities said no deaths had been reported nationally.
In Mexico City, tall buildings swayed for more than a minute as seismic alarms sounded, with older structures in the chic Condesa neighborhood knocking into each other, and some cracks appearing in plaster and paintwork.
The Popocatepetl volcano south of the capital sent a kilometer-high column of ash into the sky, said Mexico’s disaster prevention agency.
