Volunteers in Mexico City have formed a human chain spanning four city blocks to rescue those trapped in the wreckage of a massive earthquake.
The 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit the city on Tuesday decimated more than 40 buildings, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said. The shocks have already caused at least 225 deaths – more than half them in the capital city alone.
At the site of one collapsed apartment building, dozens of volunteers formed an assembly line to pass rubble out of the area. At another building, volunteers linked up to pass a stretcher to rescue workers.
One man, an army reservist named Manuel Mavroleon Aguayo, told the BBC he had joined a team that pulled seven bodies out of a ruined building. Only two survived.
“A huge wave of people emerged out of where they were to help with the rescue effort,” Mr Aguayo said.
At a Mexico City primary and secondary school, 21 children and four adults were killed when the building collapsed inward on itself. Rescue workers and volunteers dug tunnels through the rubble to free those trapped inside.
One volunteer, Pedro Serrano, told AP he had dug his way into a collapsed classroom.
“We saw some chairs and wooden tables,” he recalled. “The next thing we saw was a leg, and then we started to move rubble and we found a girl and two adults – a woman and a man.”
All three of them had died.
Rescue workers were able to save 11 people at the school by Wednesday afternoon, but 30 more were still unaccounted for. One young girl was saved when rescuers spotted her and yelled out to her to shake her hand if she was alive.
Elsewhere in the city, two sisters joined a chain passing water to those trapped inside a collapsed six-storey office building. Fears of gas leaks have forced many restaurants and grocery stores to remain closed, but witnesses say residents have generously shared what supplies they have.
One of the sisters, Cristina Lopez, told AP it was “human nature that drives everyone to come and help others”.
“We are young. We didn’t live through ’85,” her sister added, referencing Mexico’s deadliest earthquake to date. “But we know that it’s important to come out into the streets to help.”
In an eerie coincidence, Tuesday’s earthquake occurred on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 quake. It also came on the heels of another, more powerful earthquake that struck the city less than two weeks before.
This latest quake was less powerful, but has already proved more fatal. Tuesday’s shocks struck closer to the capital, which is especially sensitive because it was built on the soft earth of a lake bed.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake was centred around the Puebla state town of Raboso, 76 miles south-east of Mexico City.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has declared three days of national mourning to honour the victims, writing on Twitter: "Mexico shares your pain."
Foreign governments have started identifying the foreign nationals among the victims. Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said one Spanish citizen had been identified, but officials declined to give more details.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy send a telegram to Mexico on Wednesday, offering his country’s help in the recovery efforts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also said he will send a 70-member rescue team to assist.
US President Donald Trump, taking a break from his United Nations debut, tweeted his sympathy.
“God bless the people of Mexico City,” he wrote. “We are with you and will be there for you.”
