Mexico's Earthquake Triggered A Deadly Collapse At A Primary School

Rescuers have spent days searching for survivors.
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After more than two days of searching for survivors, rescuers concluded Thursday that all pupils had been accounted for at Mexico City’s Enrique Rébsamen primary school, where 19 children were killed after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the region on Tuesday, leveling the building.

Six adults also died in the collapse, Reuters reported. According to Foro TV, the school had completed an evacuation drill just two hours before the disaster occurred.

Earlier reports on the school collapse had focused on a girl who was allegedly trapped beneath the rubble, with rescuers telling media at the scene they were trying to locate her in the debris.

But a statement Thursday from a Mexican Navy official that all students had been accounted for made the situation unclear, as had the lack of family members coming forward to identify the allegedly missing girl.

The quake, the worst to hit Mexico in decades, devastated cities and towns across central Mexico, killing more than 230 people. It hit less than two weeks after an 8.1-magnitude quake killed at least 98 people in southern Mexico.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto toured the devastation late Tuesday, lending comfort to frantic parents and survivors.

At least 200 Mexico City schools suffered some kind of damage, education minister Aurelio Nuño said. Classes were canceled at universities across the country.

Reuters

This story has been updated to include more recent casualty counts.

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