Rescuers work in silence to pull children from collapsed school
The number of confirmed deaths as a result of the quake stands at 250.;
Mexico City: A hushed silence has kept falling over the volunteers, soldiers and neighbours congregating outside a collapsed school in southern Mexico City, where rescue workers tried to extract students trapped under the rubble.
A stern-looking officer in jeans and black vest from Mexico's federal police would raise his fist high above his head signalling silence on Wednesday to enable rescuers with sensitive microphones to listen for cries from the rubble
But bystanders and rescuers alike burst into applause at around 4:30pm — with one worker on top of a dump truck full of rubble pumping his fist — as the word spread rescuers had removed two girls from the school.
The applause was premature, however. Rescuers worked into the night to reach a girl called Frida Sofía, 12, who told them she was in contact five friends on the third floor of the school. They would later discover at 11pm she was not on the floor they had thought.
The plight of Frida Sofía captivated Mexicans, who were glued to their TVs as the country's big broadcasters beamed video live from the school.
It came to represent hope and heartache for Mexicans: the hope of pulling a child from the rubble, but also the heartache of rescuers encountering so many close calls.
The tragedy at the Enrique Rébsamen school, meanwhile bore witness to the scale of the destruction unleashed by the quake. Mexico's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, visited the school on
Tuesday night, but there was bad news: 21 children were dead, along with four adults. Another 30 people were missing. At least 250 have been confirmed dead across the country.
On Wednesday morning, rumours spread that a teacher and two students had sent text messages from within the rubble, and local television reported that
rescuers had spotted a young girl trapped in the building who had moved her hand when they called out to her.
Amid the uncertainty, parents clung to hope that their children had survived. "They keep pulling kids out, but we know nothing of my daughter," Adriana D'Fargo told Reuters. She had been waiting for hours for news of her seven-year- old.
But some rescuers were doubtful that any more survivors could emerge from the rubble.
"People are saying these children are alive, but that's unlikely," said one Mexican government employee working on the rescue.
"It's dangerous in there. We're advancing little by little, rock by rock."
The Mexico City earthquake struck on 19 September – the same day a huge tremor wrecked the national capital in 1985, claiming an estimated 10,000 lives. "Another lethal 19-S," noted the newspaper Milenio.
Three-day mourning in Mexico for quake victims
Mexico City: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has decreed three days of national mourning for the victims of the powerful quake that killed over 200 people and toppled buildings in central Mexico on Tuesday. The office of the presidency made the announcement on Twitter on Wednesday, saying it was "to honour" the more than 200 known fatal victims of the 7.1-magnitude quake, Xinhua news agency reported. Previously, Pena Nieto announced three days of national mourning for the victims of the 8.2-magnitude quake that hit southern Mexico on September 7, killing nearly 250 people, mainly in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.