6.1 magnitude earthquake rattles Mexico City

Moderately strong earthquake shakes Mexican capital; some damage, no deaths

Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 11:49 AM -

A moderately strong earthquake struck near Mexico's Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Wednesday, causing cracks in some buildings and swaying buildings in Mexico City. 

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake at 7:38 a.m. ( 8:38 a.m.; 1238 GMT) had a magnitude of 6.1. It was centred near the Pacific coast and about 100 km east of Acapulco. 

Cracks were found in the walls of a university in Acapulco and a cement entrance gate at a local military base collapsed, said Victor Torres Ruiz, the spokesman for the state government of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located. 

A second, smaller quake followed 24 minutes later. The USGS calculated the magnitude of the aftershock at 5.3. 

Traffic lights went out in the city, causing traffic jams, and fears of more possible aftershocks led some schools in Acapulco to send children home for the day. Buildings swayed in Mexico City, 280 km to the north, and some people evacuated office buildings as an earthquake alarm sounded. On the city's main boulevard, one man injured his leg as he rushed out of an office building. 

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said there no reports of damages or serious injuries. 

Mexico City is vulnerable even to distant earthquakes because much of it sits atop the muddy sediments of drained lake beds that quiver as quake waves hit. The magnitude-8.1 quake in 1985 that killed at least 6,000 people and destroyed many buildings in Mexico City was centred 400 km away on the Pacific Coast.

With files from The Associated Press