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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Adam Gabbatt (now), Matthew Weaver (earlier)

Mexico earthquake: military criticized over search and rescue missions – as it happened

The latest

•A total of 273 people have died in the 7.1 magnitude earthquake, which struck Mexico on Tuesday. Officials said 1,900 people had been injured, while thousands have lost their homes. Hopes that more survivors would be found were fading on Thursday.

•Parts of Mexico City have been devastated, but the states of Morelos and Puebla were particularly badly hit. The death toll stood at 73 in Morelos, while authorities in Puebla declared a state of “extraordinary emergency” in 112 municipalities – equivalent to 51% of the region.

•A story about a 12-year-old girl who was allegedly trapped beneath a school in Mexico City proved to be false. The country had been captivated by the fate of “Frida Sofia”, who was allegedly trapped in the rubble of her school. But on Thursday the navy said there was no such child. They were, however, searching for a possible adult survivor.

•At least 21 children and four adults have died at the Enrique Rébsamen school, and volunteers and soldiers continued to search in silence for any survivors.

•Anger was growing at the armed forces, who were alleged to be razing collapsed buildings in some areas. The military has taken over many rescue operations initially led by volunteers, but less than 72 hours after the earthquake hit, they have reportedly begun to demolish piles of rubble.

•In the La Roma neighbourhood, the navy reportedly shut down a rescue operation in an office block on Thursday morning in order to start bulldozing an unstable structure from which 24 survivors had been pulled free.

•In Metepec, a small colonial town, nearly every house and business has suffered structural damage, and residents fear it could take years to rebuild and recover.

•Experts have said both earthquakes this month did not directly involve two tectonic plates clashing, as is commonly the case, but likely stemmed from a rupture inside the plate.

Frida Sofía: the trapped girl who was never there

The story captivated a country still reeling from catastrophe: rescue workers were labouring round the clock to free a 12-year-old girl who had miraculously survived Mexico’s devastating earthquake, but remained trapped in the ruins of her school.

Television channels broadcast breathless updates describing how the rescuers were inching closer to the cavity where Frida Sofía was buried alive.

Naval officers leading the rescue effort told reporters that she had been seen to wiggle her fingers, that she had taken shelter under a granite table and was in contact with schoolmates.

But on Thursday, hope turned to heartache – and then anger – as the story fell apart: there was no student named Frida Sofía; there was no girl trapped in the ruins of Enrique Rebsámen school.

Read the full story here:

Death toll rises to 273

A total of 273 people have now been confirmed dead, including 137 in Mexico City, according to Mexico’s office of the presidency. The fatalities include 73 deaths in Morelos state, 43 in Puebla, 13 in the State of Mexico, six in Guerrero and one in Oaxaca.

President Enrique Peña Nieto said search-and-rescue missions are continuing in collapsed buildings.

The Mexican football players Javier Hernandez and Miguel Layun have started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the victims of the earthquake.

The pair, who both play for the Mexico national team, have raised more than $175,000 through the You Caring website since the earthquake struck.

“We decided to take the initiative for Mexico and give our people a hand,” the pair wrote on You Caring.

“We know that many see us as a source of inspiration, but in this case, what has inspired us is to see millions of Mexicans take to the streets and to lend a hand without asking for anything in return.

“We hope, with this initiative, to help those who need it and motivate more people to do it with us.”

The Houston Texans football player JJ Watt organized a relief fund after Hurricane Harvey hit the city in August.

Mexican navy: No missing child at Mexico City school

There is no missing child at the collapsed Enrique Rébsamen school in Mexico City, the Mexican navy said on Thursday afternoon, although they believe an adult is still alive in the rubble.

Mexican television networks had reported on Wednesday that a 12-year-old girl called Frida Sofia was trapped in the rubble of the collapsed school, but later reports suggested there was no one by the name of Frida Sofia at the school.

From the Associated Press:

Mexico’s navy says there are no missing children at a collapsed Mexico City school where rescuers have been hunting for a girl they believed to be trapped.

Assistant Navy Secretary Angel Enrique Sarmiento says there is evidence of a person who may still alive, but he says it’s probably a school worker.

The search for the supposedly missing girl has been a focus of attention across the country as a symbol of hope following Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake.

Sarmiento says 11 children were rescued alive after the quake, while 19 children and six adults died.

Updated

The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani and David Agren have filed their latest report from Mexico City. At least 250 people have died and 1,900 have been injured, they write. The damage is widespread.

Details of the destruction outside the capital are only now starting to emerge, with reports of entire towns flattened and thousands of people left homeless.

Directly south of Mexico City in Morelos state, the death toll stands at 73. The damage was especially acute in the municipality of Jojutla, where houses were reduced to rubble.

Earthquake damage in Jojutla
Earthquake damage in Jojutla. Photograph: Enrique Castro Sanchez/AFP/Getty Images

“Jojutla is damaged badly, but there are communities that have suffered the same or worse,” said Óscar Cruz, a spokesman with the local Catholic diocese, who added all 89 Catholic parishes in the state suffered damage. “What’s tragic is that the damage is worst in the poorest pueblos.”

In Puebla state, authorities have declared a state of “extraordinary emergency” in 112 municipalities – equivalent to 51% of the region. The death toll in Puebla has risen to 43.

At least 1,700 homes have been declared inhabitable and should be demolished over coming months, according to the state governor. The number could well rise after experts finish more exhaustive inspections.

In Metepec, a quaint colonial town, almost every house and business has suffered structural damage, raising fears among residents that the rebuild could take years.

Mexican military criticized over earthquake response

There is growing anger at alleged attempts by the armed forces, which have taken over many of the rescue operations initially led by volunteers, to begin razing collapsed buildings less than 72 hours after the earthquake.

In the trendy neighbourhood La Roma, the navy reportedly shut down a rescue operation in an office block on Thursday morning in order to start bulldozing the unstable structure from which 24 survivors have so far been pulled free from the debris.

The sobbing mother of one young woman trapped inside told the Televisa news channel: “I will not let the navy bulldoze this building when my daughter and other people are still trapped inside and could be alive.”

Reports of clashes between volunteer rescue workers and the armed forces are also surfacing across the capital.

“The army has a history of imposing brutal triage rules for natural disasters which dates back to the 1985 earthquake,” said public policy analyst Rodolfo Soriano Nuñez.

“They might get away with this arrogant approach in Oaxaca or Chiapas, but not in Mexico City.”

In 2010 Public Radio International caught up with some of the people who, as babies, survived the collapse of the Juarez Hospital during the 1985 earthquake.

The children became known as the “miracle babies” in the aftermath of the earthquake. Some of them spent days in the rubble before they were found. Some lost their mothers, others suffered terrible injuries.

A child is pulled from earthquake wreckage
A young child is pulled from wreckage following the 1985 Mexico earthquake. Photograph: Jonathan Utz/AFP/Getty Images

Jesus Francisco was born four days before the quake, but he and his mother had remained in the General Hospital so she could undergo a hysterectomy. She had four children and didn’t want more.

They were in a room on the sixth floor, and she had just gone downstairs for something when the earth shook. She died, and for five days her child, one arm and ribs crushed and with a severe head injury, lay jammed into a dirty, rat-infested space hardly bigger than a shoebox.

His aunt Graciela Rodriguez and her husband Leonardo — who later became Jesus’ adopted parents — waited for days outside the hospital for news. On their final day of waiting, Leonard had gone to another part of the city to check on family members. When he returned, he says, as he choked down tears from the memory of it: “They said, ‘he lives, he lives.’ It was amazing.”

Updated

ABC News’ John Quinones covered the 1985 Mexico earthquake which left thousands of people dead. Quinones says he “felt a familiar pain in the pit of [his] stomach” when he heard about Tuesday’s earthquake.

In an article for ABC, Quinones remembers the impact of the earthquake that occurred 32 years ago.

As the days went by, the chances of finding more victims alive grew slimmer and slimmer.

And then came the miracles.

In the middle of the night, six days after the quake first struck, we were filming at Juarez Hospital in the heart of the capital. No one had been rescued in days. Then suddenly, the volunteers raised their hands in the air, once again calling for silence. One of the workers had heard what he thought was the faint sound of a baby, crying. The volunteers then resumed their frantic digging. And sure enough, within minutes, they gently pulled a 6-day-old infant – tiny Elvira Rosas – out of the rubble. She had been born just minutes before the ground shook almost a week before and somehow, against all odds, had survived.

And, that wasn’t all. An hour and a half later, another call for quiet and yet another infant – this time an 8-day-old baby boy was carried out to cheers and tearful cries of gratitude.

Tonight, as we watch tireless volunteers once again dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings -– including a Mexico City school where dozens of children were trapped – the rescues we witnessed exactly 32 years ago, should give us hope.

Updated

The Guardian’s graphics team has produced this image showing death tolls around Mexico.

Death tolls following Mexico earthquake
Death tolls in Mexico

The name “Frida Sofía” trended on Twitter on Wednesday as the country was captivated by what the media and authorities said was the imminent rescue of a girl trapped in the rubble of a collapsed school.

But Frida Sofía was not the name of the girl rescuers were trying to pull from the rubble of the Enrique Rébsamen school. All students with that name at the school were accounted for, Mexican broadcaster Televisa – which focused heavily on the school site – reported Thursday morning. The girl’s parents also had not been located, according to public education secretary Aurelio Nuño.

“Frida Sofía” trended again on Thursday, though the tweets were tinged with rage as Mexicans railed against the country’s big broadcasters for peddling false hope as the country dug out from the two massive earthquakes in less than two week.

“The writers of ‘the Rosa de Guadalupe’ already have their next chapter … ‘Frida Sofía,’” read one tweet, referring to corny soap opera involving in which characters plead for intervention from the national patroness, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Others were reminded of “Monchito,” a 9-year-old boy supposedly pulled from the rubble of the 1985 earthquake who never existed.

Mexican TV continued with its coverage of the earthquake Thursday, though it turned its attention to disaster areas away from the Enrique Rébsamen school, which collapsed in a tragedy killing 21 students and four teachers.

Rescue efforts continued at the school, though with reduced crews due to the fragility of the site, Mexican media reported.

The Los Angeles Times has reported on the tragic story of 11 people who were killed when a church collapsed in Atzala, about 100 miles south of Mexico City.

They were gathered at the Santiago the Apostle Catholic Church to attend the baptism of three-month-old Elideth Torres de Leon, according to the LA Times. Torres de Leon was among those who died.

The coffins of the 11 people killed in the church collapse were lined up together on Wednesday as stunned friends, relatives and townsfolk said goodbye — the baptism had instead become a funeral Mass.

“I am in profound pain. I am shattered,” said Graciano Villanueva Perez, 73, who lost six relatives — his wife, sister, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, all of whom were attending the baptism. “I don’t know what to say,” he added, drifting away to the comfort of kin, his head bowed. He had been at home resting when the quake hit.

His relative, Facundo Flores Nolasco, 42, also lost six loved ones: his wife, mother, brother, daughter-in-law, a niece and a nephew. He had been returning from his fields on a bicycle with others when the quake struck.

Updated

Some of the video footage from Mexico has shown rescuers sporadically raising their fists in the air as they search for survivors. The BBC explains why here.

For those wondering where they can donate to people in Mexico, the New York Times has published a list of organizations helping with the earthquake response.

Topos Mexico is a non-profit, volunteer rescue team that has been prominently involved in the response. The organization posted information on how to donate on its Twitter feed.

Here are some other groups the Times recommended.

Mexican Red Cross has been accepting direct donations online and has set up an Amazon Wish List for necessary items.

Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization, has staff members in Mexico City and has pledged that 100 percent of its donations will go directly to relief efforts, which it says will include facilitating the delivery of medical supplies to affected areas.

GlobalGiving, a crowdfunding organization, has pledged that all money donated to its earthquake fund will go to recovery and relief efforts.

Fondo Unido México, part of the United Way network, has created an emergency fund to help the areas affected by the earthquakes as well as the recent series of hurricanes.

Updated

A paramedic walks towards soldiers during a search for students at the Enrique Rebsamen school after an earthquake in Mexico City
A paramedic walks towards soldiers during a search for students at the Enrique Rebsamen school after an earthquake in Mexico City Photograph: Daniel Becerril/Reuters

Mexico awoke Thursday to news that rescuers at a collapsed elementary school were still trying to wedge their way into the rubble and free trapped students.

One the students, a girl initially known as Frida Sofía, was thought to be in contact with classmates and close to being pulled from the rubble.

Public education secretary Aurelio Nuño told Televisa late last night that the girl was alive, but authorities were unable to locate her parents or any family member.

As dawn broke on an overcast day, the network reported the girl’s name was not Frida. Teachers at the collapsed Rébsamen school, reported that all girls with that name were accounted for. Televisa speculated that rescue workers didn’t correctly hear the girl’s name.

The case of Frida Sofía captured the public imagination as the country seemed to search for small signs of optimism after the earthquake had inflicting so much damage on the national capital and its environs. “Frida Sofía” trended on Twitter, while millions of Mexicans tuned into cable coverage of the rescue effort.

A portion of the four-story private school collapsed shortly after the earthquake hit Mexico City, claiming at least 25 lives – including four teachers.

Dramatic imagers of rescuers pulling out children captivated the country. But several rescuers interviewed on Wednesday expressed pessimism that many more students would be found alive. They pointed to the building collapsing “like a sandwich” leaving piles of dense rubble. Stories flowed out of the scene, including the rescue of two girls – triggering applause and fist pumps from rescuers and volunteers.

Signs of a rescue unfolded, including urgent calls for stretchers and medical person to arrive at the scene, along with supplies like oxygen tanks, neck braces and adrenaline. It was said at the scene that several girls were enduring their ordeal under a granite table.

But later a member of the Topos, a citizen group of rescuers, who burrow through rubble, said the stories of a rescue were false. The group left the scene after the authorities brought in heavy equipment to the collapsed school.

Héctor Mendoza, a Topos leaders, told the press: “The Topos way is to work without machinery.”

He added that introducing machinery risked collapsing the narrow tunnels that small space where the victims were likely trapped. Sofía was thought to be on the third floor of the collapsed school. But late last night rescuers did not find anyone there and said she is likely to be on another floor.

People who lost their homes in the 7.1 magnitude earthquake rest inside a gymnasium turned in an evacuation center in Mexico City
People who lost their homes in the 7.1 magnitude earthquake rest inside a gymnasium turned in an evacuation center in Mexico City Photograph: Jorge Dan Lopez/EPA

Mexico’s government has published a list of 45 shelters set up for people left homeless by the earthquake.

CNN has a striking before and after graphic of a block in Mexico City.

Spain has despatched a military team to Mexico to help with the rescue and recovery operation, foreign minister Alfonso Dastis has announced.

A USAid disaster response team is also on the way.

The death toll from the earthquake is reported to have risen to 250 people as another body was recovered from the Enrique Rebsamen school.

AP reports:

Rescue workers have recovered the body of a woman from the ruins of the school in southern Mexico City where a child has been detected alive.

The Mexican Navy issued a statement early Thursday saying the 58-year-old woman had worked at the Enrique Rebsamen school.

At least 26 people are known to have died at the primary and secondary school, which was one of scores of buildings across central Mexico that collapsed in Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake.

Both military and civilian rescue workers are trying to reach a child trapped in the rubble who has shown signs of life.

But they’re not sure who she is. The navy statement appealed for information, saying no relatives have approached to offer any information about her.

Vladimir Navarro has spent the night working at the site of a collapsed school. He said rescuers are “just meters away from getting to the children,” but the rubble is unstable and they can’t access it until it is shored up.

He said: “Taking any decision is dangerous.” Navarro said they need a large crane to come in and help.

An earthquake survivor forced to sleep in a makeshift shelter in a sports hall in Mexico City said the authorities ignored reports of cracks in her building, AFP reports in this video.

Mexico’s second earthquake in 11 days has surprised seismologists, according Steve Hicks from the University of Southampton. Writing for the Guardian, he says:

If the 8.1 tremor raised eyebrows, then Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake left everyone stunned. The earthquake’s epicentre was unusually located, in central Mexico. Its depth was puzzling: only 50km down, but the faulting mechanism implied rupture inside a plate.

The reasonably shallow depth suggested that this particular part of the Pacific Ring of Fire does not behave as we expect. Based on previous scientific studies, the slab begins to behave as normal at shallow depths, but then it suddenly flattens for a distance of around 200 km, before again plunging into the deep Earth. This final kink in the Cocos plate is located right where the 7.1 earthquake happened, and directly beneath the Valley of Mexico, in which Mexico City is located. This warping of the Cocos plate caused a large earthquake to occur close to Mexico city at a relatively shallow depth. The combination of the earthquake’s location, radiated seismic energy, and the very foundations of Mexico City – thick, loose soils that behave like a bowl of jelly during earthquakes – created the conditions for devastation.

The two earthquakes occurred within just 11 days of each other and both were within the sinking Cocos plate. Preliminary calculations show that because the earthquakes occurred more than 600km from each other, the first rupture would have only increased stress on Tuesday’s ruptured fault by a tiny amount. So there is no immediate indication that these two quakes are directly linked.

Teachers at the Enrique Rebsamen school have told local TV that all pupils with the name Frida Sofía are accounted for, points out David Agren, the Guardian’s correspondent in Mexico City.

Mexico’s education secretary Aurelio Nuno confirmed that Frida Sofía was alive, but said her relatives could not be contacted.

He urged the family to get in touch with the authorities.

Headlines in the Mexican press describe her as “the girl everyone is trying to rescue but no one knows who she is”.

Rescue workers transport a tent as they search for students through the rubble at Enrique Rebsamen school
Rescue workers transport a tent as they search for students through the rubble at Enrique Rebsamen school Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

AFP has more on the agonising search for children in the rubble of Enrique Rebsamen school.

Rescue workers were desperately trying to reach several children believed to be alive beneath the wreckage in the early hours of Thursday - more than 40 hours after the quake struck. Using a thermal scanner, they had located signs of life in several locations.

“We know that there is a child alive inside (the destroyed school), what we do not know is how to reach her... without risking a collapse and putting rescuers in danger,” rescue coordinator Jose Luis Vergara told Televisa about a young girl whose fate is being closely followed by the country.

A civilian volunteer - a slight man - was able to squeeze into a narrow channel through the rubble to reach the girl and pass her water and oxygen.

“I’m very tired,” she said, according to the military.

So far, 11 children and at least one teacher have been rescued from the rubble of the Enrique Rebsamen elementary and middle school.

“No one can possibly imagine the pain I’m in right now,” said one mother, Adriana Fargo, who was standing outside what remained of the school waiting for news of her seven-year-old daughter.

Rescue workers search through the rubble for students at Enrique Rebsamen school after an earthquake in Mexico City
Rescue workers search through the rubble for students at Enrique Rebsamen school after an earthquake in Mexico City Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

An official in Mexico City told the BBC that rescuers searching the rubble of Enrique Rebsamen school were able to hear three different people including Frida Sofia (It gave her age as 13, but most news outlets say she is aged 12)

Updated

This is Matthew Weaver resuming our live coverage of the aftermath of Tuesday’s earthquake in Mexico, as rescuers continue to search for survivors.

Here’s what we know so far.

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