Quake slams Mexico, Guatemala; at least 3 dead

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GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A magnitude-6.9 earthquake on the
Pacific Coast jolted a wide area of southern Mexico and Central America
Monday, killing at least three people while damaging homes, hospitals
and churches.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at
6:23 a.m. (7:23 a.m. EDT; 11:23 GMT) on the Pacific Coast 1 mile (2
kilometers) north-northeast of Puerto Madero, near the Guatemala border.
It initially calculated the magnitude at 7.1 but later lowered the
figure to 6.9.
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said a baby
died when parts of the ceiling collapsed on the newborn in the San Marco
medical center. He said there were reports of other deaths, but this
was the only confirmed fatality in Guatemala. He added that there were
33 injuries.
Earlier, the national spokesman for local fire
departments, Raul Hernandez, had said that at least two people died in
their homes from collapsed walls in the Guatemalan town of Pati, in the
border province of San Marcos, and another woman in Quetzaltenango died
from a heart attack.
Civil protection officials in the Mexican
state of Chiapas raised the death toll to two, and said at least a dozen
people were injured by falling tiles and other debris.
Perez said
the quake was felt in 12 of Guatemala’s 22 states. There were reports
of power outages and rock slides on some roadways in Guatemala.
Photos
posted on social media sites and published by the Guatemalan newspaper
Prensa Libre showed buildings with huge cracks across their facades in
San Marcos, and one which apparently suffered a partial collapse.
Classes were suspended in at least three western states bordering Mexico.
In
Chiapas, where the quake was centered, panicked people poured into the
streets and the Red Cross said it was treating some frightened adults
and children.
"I thought the house was going to collapse," said
Claudia Gonzales, 32, who ran to the street in the town of Comitan with
her 1-year-old daughter.
The quake was felt across a broad swath
of southern Mexico and as far away as Mexico City, but officials had no
immediate reports of damage.
The quake was centered 37 miles (60 kilometers) beneath the surface.
In
the city of Tapachula, near the epicenter, city employee Omar Santos
said "buildings were moving, windows broke in some houses and
businesses, and people ran through the streets in the dark."

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