MEXICO CITY — The Latest on the deadly Sept. 19 earthquake in central Mexico (all times local)
The death toll from the Sept. 19 earthquake in central Mexico has jumped by 10 to 355.
National Civil Defense chief Luis Felipe Puente reported the new figure Friday on Twitter. He said the toll includes 214 in Mexico City.
Most of the rubble has been cleared away from the 38 sites where buildings collapsed in the capital due to the magnitude 7.1 quake, and the last bodies are being pulled from the debris.
The rest of the fatalities were in the states of Morelos, Puebla, Mexico State, Guerrero and Oaxaca.
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8:45 a.m.
A Mexico City borough president says officials from a previous administration ignored warnings that unauthorized construction work on a school that collapsed during the Sept. 19 earthquake was damaging the building structurally.
The school became a symbol of the tragedy when a three-story wing of the building pancaked, killing 26 people including 19 children.
Borough president Claudia Sheinbaum says inspectors warned the borough’s judicial director in November 2013 that work on the third floor and an illegally added fourth floor were “damaging structural elements that affect the stability of the building.”
The school was apparently allowed to complete the work by paying a fine equivalent to about $1,600 at the time.
Sheinbaum calls that “outrageous” and says she has filed a criminal complaint against the judicial director, a person who held the same post later and “whoever else may be responsible.”
Sheinbaum took office in 2015.
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7:50 a.m.
The death toll from the Sept. 19 earthquake in central Mexico has continued to inch upward more than a week later and now stands at 345.
National Civil Defense chief Luis Felipe Puente reports that another death has been confirmed in the capital. He said late Thursday on Twitter that the toll in Mexico City has reached 206.
Most of the rubble has been cleared away from the 38 sites where buildings collapsed in the capital due to the magnitude 7.1 quake.
There were also fatalities in the states of Morelos, Puebla, Mexico State, Guerrero and Oaxaca.
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