A strong earthquake shook Mexico City, Puebla and other areas of central Mexico yesterday, leaving at least six people dead, 30 injured and another 17 trapped in a building.
The quake, which occurred at 3:45 p.m., measured 6.7 on the Richter scale and lasted about two minutes.
Three people were crushed to death as a church outside the city of Puebla collapsed, while another two died when a wall collapsed in the city itself, officials said.
In addition, 30 people were injured and another 17, most of them journalists, were trapped in a partly collapsed building in the colonial city, 60 km south-east of the capital.
Several buildings in Puebla's historic city centre collapsed and 180 hospital patients had to be rescued as authorities checked for damage.
President Ernesto Zedillo traveled to Puebla yesterday evening to assess the situation.
In Mexico City, authorities said one person died of a heart attack and hundreds more were treated for nervous shock.
In the city centre, thousands of panicky residents could be seen rushing out of their offices and away from tall buildings as soon as the quake hit.
Police helicopters and rescue teams toured the capital searching for victims or damage shortly after the quake, which snarled traffic and caused power and telephone outages in some areas.
The Torre Latinoamericana, Mexico City's highest building, swayed from side to side during the quake. Like many tall buildings in the Mexican capital, the 44-story tower has a hydraulic system which allows it to move with the tremors, thereby absorbing much of the shock that would otherwise damage its structure.
The capital is in a seismically active region. A massive earthquake had devastated the city in 1985, killing at least 4,200 people.
The epicentre of yesterday's quake was near Huajapan de Leon, in the state of Oaxaca, some 200 km south of Mexico City, according to the National Seismological Service.
It was not immediately possible to establish contact with the small town, which is mainly inhabited by Mixteca Indians.
However, police said several buildings in the region were affected, notably in the town of Teposcolula, where several homes and parts of the municipal palace collapsed. Landslides also blocked traffic on several roads.