Mexico holds minute of silence, sounds alarm to remember 2017 quakes

Record ID: 1356909

  • Title: Mexico holds minute of silence, sounds alarm to remember 2017 quakes
  • Date: 19th September 2018
  • Summary: GENERAL VIEW OF RIOT POLICE ON DUTY GENERAL VIEW OF OPEN-AIR MASS FOR QUAKE VICTIMS PEOPLE AT MASS PRIEST GIVING MASS TO FAITHFUL (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RESIDENT WHO LOST HOME IN QUAKE, ANGEL FUENTES, SAYING: "It (commemorative service) makes me happy to see all of this. There is still solidarity amongst the Mexican people. Thank you also to the media who have supported us
  • Embargoed: 3rd October 2018 22:52
  • Keywords: Mexico City earthquake S19 September 19 Mexico anniversary
  • Location: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
  • City: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
  • Reuters ID: LVA0038YAN1AB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Mexicans held a minute of silence on Wednesday (September 19) and performed an emergency earthquake drill to mark the one-year anniversary of devastating quakes that struck the country in September 2017, killing more than 450 people.
    Mexicans stood silently in the street with their fists raised aloft just after 1:14 p.m. local time (18:14 GMT), the moment a quake struck the capital city and surrounding states on Sept. 19 last year.
    Quake rescue workers had used the gesture to request quiet as they listened for signs of life below the rubble of fallen buildings.
    Just over a minute later, authorities activated quake alarms in Mexico City and office workers began carrying out practice runs for emergency evacuations of buildings. The timing of the drill brought back traumatic memories for many city residents, including children who were at school when the quake struck.
    Even before the disaster last year, another anniversary on the same date had been engraved in the minds of older residents of the capital who remembered a massive earthquake that killed thousands of people in 1985.
    The 7.1 magnitude quake hit central Mexico last year hours after a memorial evacuation drill. It killed 370 people, most of them in the capital. Tens of thousands of buildings were damaged, and dozens died as a school and offices collapsed.
    The tremor shook the country just 12 days after a separate, more powerful earthquake struck off the southwest coast of the country, killing about 100 people.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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