An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 shook downtown Mexico City on Thursday, but according to Mayor Marti Patrese, no damage has been recorded yet, the Mexican Seismological Service said.
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Agence France-Presse reported that residents took to the streets of the capital when the alarm went off shortly after 2:00 pm local time (8:00 pm GMT). The epicenter of the earthquake was in the state of Puebla, about a hundred kilometers south of the huge city with a population of more than nine million people.
France Press agency
“There are no reports of any damage in Mexico City,” Mayor Marti Patrez immediately responded to X.
The President of the Republic, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said: “It seems that the shock was not that strong,” promising further information.
France Press agency
On September 19, 1985, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake destroyed much of Mexico City. The earthquake, whose epicenter was in the west on the Pacific coast, shook most of central and southern Mexico.
The great earthquake of 1985 left 12,843 people dead, according to the number of official death certificates published by the Excelsior newspaper 20 years later, in 2015. Civic organizations put forward a figure of 20,000 dead at the time.
Thirty-two years later, on September 19, 2017, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed 369 people and caused extensive damage in the central neighborhoods of Mexico City.
In 2022, the Earth shook for the third time in a row on September 19, with no casualties.
As happened in 2017, millions of people previously participated in the earthquake simulation exercise organized by the authorities on September 19 every year.
An alert system has been put in place. In the event of an earthquake, alarms are sounded in the streets and buildings to warn residents one minute before the earthquake strikes.
Mexico is located between five tectonic plates, whose movements make the country one of the most seismic plates in the world, especially on the Pacific coast to the west.
Part of Mexico City, especially the city center, lies on the muddy floor of an ancient lake, making it particularly vulnerable to earthquakes.
