Mexico quake death toll rises to 26 as state of emergency declared
The death toll from an 8.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Mexico has reached at least 26, according to tallies from local authorities, RT reports.
Twenty of the confirmed fatalities were in the state of Oaxaca, according to its governor. Seventeen of those deaths occurred in the town of Juchitan.
Three people were killed in collapsing buildings in Chiapas, where a state of emergency has been declared, according to President Enrique Peña Nieto.
The epicenter of the quake was at a depth of 33 km (21 miles), 123 km (76 miles) southwest of the town of Pijijiapan, not far from the Guatemalan border.
It was a major earthquake in scale and magnitude, the strongest in the past 100 years,” President Peña Nieto said in an address from the National Disaster Prevention Centre’s headquarters, where he was supervising the emergency response.
