6.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Mexico, 1 dead

Mexico City: A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck Mexico early on Friday, causing buildings to sway and leaving at least one person dead in the nation’s capital.

The earthquake struck early on Thursday shortly after 1 am, just three days after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook western and central Mexico, killing two.

The US Geological Survey said Thursday’s earthquake like Monday’s tremor was centred in the western state of Michoacan near the Pacific coast.

The epicentre was about 29 miles (46 kilometres) south-southwest of Aguililla, Michoacan, at a depth of about 15 miles (24.1 kilometres).

Michoacan’s state government said the quake was felt throughout the state. It reported damage to a building in the city of Uruapan and some landslides on the highway that connects Michoacan and Guerrero with the coast.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that it was an aftershock from Monday’s quake and was also felt in the states of Colima, Jalisco and Guerrero.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said via Twitter that one woman died in a central neighbourhood when she fell down the stairs of her home. Residents were huddled in streets as seismic alarms blared.

The earthquake rattled an already jittery country. Monday’s more powerful quake was the third major earthquake to strike on September 19 — in 1985, 2017 and now 2022.

The 2017 and 2022 September 19 quakes came very shortly after the annual earthquake drill conducted every September 19 to commemorate the devastating 1985 temblor that killed some 9,500 people.