The strong earthquake of magnitude 6.8 that shook Mexico this Thursday caused two deaths in Mexico City, the capital of the country, according to a preliminary balance of the Mexican authorities.
One of the victims is a woman who fell down the stairs of her house after the earthquake alert was activated, said the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, quoted by the US news agency AP.
The other victim is a man who died after suffering a heart attack, according to the French news agency AFP.
Thousands of people took to the streets in several cities after the earthquake alert was triggered.
The earthquake struck at 1:16 am (7:16 am in Lisbon), three days after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed two people in the country.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Twitter that it was an aftershock of Monday’s earthquake.
The United States Institute of Geophysics (USGS) announced that the epicenter of Thursday’s earthquake was located about 45 kilometers southwest of Aguililla, in the western state of Michoacán.
The quake struck at a depth of about 15 miles, according to the USGS.
The Michoacán government said the quake was felt throughout the state and reported damage to a building in the city of Uruapan.
Landslides also occurred on the highway that connects Michoacán and Guerrero with the coast, the same source said.
The violent earthquake on Monday was the third on September 19, after those registered in 1985 and 2017.
The devastating earthquake of September 19, 1985 killed tens of thousands of people.
Since then, Mexico has held an exercise on September 19 on the occasion of the 1985 earthquake.
As in 2017, Monday’s earthquake occurred after the exercise.
Source: TSF
