6.8 Earthquake Hits Mexico : 1 Dies, 2 Injured in Capital; Resort City Shaken

A strong earthquake rocked Mexico City and Acapulco for about 45 seconds this morning, shaking buildings, breaking windows and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets. One man was reported killed and two people seriously hurt in the panic.

The quake struck at 8:29 a.m. and had a magnitude of 6.8 to 7.0. The epicenter was about 40 miles east of the resort city of Acapulco, which is popular with American tourists. It was felt in the southwestern Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla.

The Mexico City Seismological Institute said the quake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said the temblor measured 6.8. A quake measuring six and above is capable of severe damage.

Not Same Fault

USGS spokesman Russ Needham said the temblor apparently did not involve the same fault as a Sept. 19, 1985, quake that killed 10,000 people in Mexico City. Another USGS spokesman said the 1985 quake, actually a pair of quakes that measured 8.1 and 7.5, released about 90 times more energy than today’s temblor.

Buildings in the capital swayed and windows shattered during this morning’s 44-second quake, raining glass onto sidewalks below as panicked people fled into the streets, including a man clad only in a towel wrapped around his waist. Women hugged and consoled each other.

Trees and power lines fell in the quake, and one man was electrocuted in the capital’s central Santa Maria Ribera neighborhood in the temblor’s aftermath, the Mexican news agency Notimex reported.

2 Seriously Hurt

Two women were seriously injured when they jumped from a four-story building in a panic, the news agency said. The Red Cross and emergency squads reported that many people suffered from nervousness and some people were hit by cars when they ran into the middle of streets.

Power outages, gas leaks and telephone line breaks were reported in several parts of the capital, primarily in the central part of the city that was badly damaged in the 1985 earthquake.

A spokesman for the Red Cross said the upper part of a high-rise building collapsed in the Colonia Roma neighborhood, which was badly damaged in the 1985 earthquake.

Traffic jams choked much of the downtown area because of the panic and failed signal lights. Police said a pedestrian bridge fell to the ground near the San Antonio Abad subway station, slightly to the south of downtown.

The city’s subway, designed to shut down automatically during seismic activity, briefly suspended service. The quake also briefly interrupted local television broadcasts.

Police in Mexico City were placed on alert, with officers ordered to drive through all city streets to look for damaged buildings and possible casualties. Several buildings on main avenues in the central part of the capital were evacuated.

In Acapulco, nearest the quake’s epicenter, little damage was reported.