An 8 point earthquake has hit Mexico and its effects are rattling Mexico City causing the people there to flee swaying buildings and taking out lights.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake had a magnitude of 8.0 and its epicenter was 165 kilometers (102 miles) west of Tapachula in southern Chiapas state. It had a depth of 35 kilometers.
Even in distant Mexico City the quake was felt so strongly that frightened residents gathered in the streets in the dark, fearing buildings would collapse.
We will continue to update here as the story develops.
UPDATE: Eight countries have received tsunami alerts after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck 120 kilometers southwest of Mexico, according to US Geological Survey data.
The epicenter of the quake was at a depth of 33 km (21 miles), 123 km (76 miles) southwest of the town of Pijijiapan, not far from the Guatemalan border.
The US Tsunami Warning System said hazardous tsunami waves are likely to follow in eight neighboring countries, including Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.
This comes in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and now Irma threatening the islands and the coastal region of the Southeastern United States. The 2009 estimated population for the city proper was approximately 8.84 million people. Mexico’s capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by Amerindians (Native Americans), the other being Quito, Ecuador.
The city was originally built on an island of Lake Texcoco by the Aztecs in 1325 as Tenochtitlan, which was almost completely destroyed in the 1521 siege of Tenochtitlan, and subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards.
Previously, On Thursday, September 19, 1985, at 7:19 am local time, Mexico City was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the Richter magnitude scale. Although this earthquake was not as deadly or destructive as many similar events in Asia and other parts of Latin America, it proved to be a disaster politically for the one-party government. The government was paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and corruption, forcing ordinary citizens to create and direct their own rescue efforts and to reconstruct much of the housing that was lost as well.
