MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Latest on the major earthquake that struck Mexico (all times local):
5 p.m.
Mexico’s office of the presidency says the death toll from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake has risen to 273, including 137 in the capital.
The presidency said in a statement Wednesday that there were also 73 deaths in Morelos state, 43 in Puebla, 13 in the State of Mexico, six in Guerrero and one in Oaxaca.
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2:20 p.m.
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.
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12:45 p.m.
Outside a collapsed seven-story office building in Mexico City’s trendy Roma Norte district, people have been camped out in tents and on folding chairs since Tuesday’s deadly earthquake, anxiously awaiting word of their loved ones.
They’re increasingly worried three days into the rescue effort - and also getting frustrated with what they say is a lack of information from authorities.
Maria del Carmen Fernandez says her 27-year-old nephew Ivan Colin Fernandez works as an accountant in the seven-story building, which pancaked to the ground.
She says the last time they got an update was late yesterday: That about 14 people were believed to be alive inside, and only three had gotten out.
Fernandez embraced the man’s mother, her sister, who wept without stop into Fernandez’s black fleece sweater.
She says she wants more information. In her words, “I think what kills us most is the desperation of not knowing anything.”
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This item has been revised to correct Maria del Carmen Fernandez’s first name.
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11:30 a.m.
Rescuers are reinforcing the shaky wreckage of a collapsed school in Mexico City where they are trying to free a trapped girl and any other quake survivors.
The remains of the building had shifted dangerously earlier Thursday morning, prompting some rescuers to evacuate the top of the pile.
Workers have put into place iron beams to prop up the structure. It took a dozen or more men to carry each one.
Stretchers have also been brought to the edge of the building. A large crane is also on site.
At least 245 people were killed in Tuesday’s earthquake, according to the most recent official count.
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9:50 a.m.
Rescuers and search dogs from Southern California are in Mexico to help following the country’s deadly earthquake.
The U.S. ambassador to Mexico says that a search and rescue team from the Los Angeles County Fire Department has arrived with “experts and tons of equipment.”
Ambassador Roberta Jacobson on Thursday posted photos of rescuers and dogs next to a large U.S. Air Force jet and cargo being offloaded from the plane.
Tuesday’s quake killed at least 245 people in Mexico City and nearby states, according to the latest official toll.
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7:45 a.m.
Vladimir Navarro has spent the night working at the site of a collapsed school in Mexico City where rescuers are still trying to free a trapped girl and any other survivors.
The university worker says he’s exhausted and is going to sleep for a few hours and then return. Navarro says 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.
In his words: “Taking any decision is dangerous.” Navarro says they need a large crane to come in and help. Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake collapsed the school and dozens of other buildings in Mexico City, and killed at least 245 people.
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7:05 a.m.
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.
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