Strong quake jolts Mexico days after powerful temblor killed at least two

Mexico City — A powerful earthquake with an initial magnitude of 6.8 ripped through Mexico early Thursday, shaking buildings and killing at least one person in the country’s capital. Earthquake sirens sounded and residents crowded the streets.

The earthquake happened shortly after 1am, just three days later 7.6-magnitude quake hits western and central Mexico, killing two○.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday’s quake, like Monday’s, was concentrated in the western state of Michoacan near the Pacific coast. The epicentre was about 29 miles south-southwest of Aguilera, Michoacan, at a depth of about 15 miles.

The Michoacan state government said the quake was felt across the state. It reported damage to a building in the city of Uruapan and some landslides on the highway connecting Michoacan and Guerrero to the coast.

President Andres Manuel López Obrador tweeted that it was an aftershock of Monday’s earthquake, which was also felt in Colima, Jalisco and Guerrero.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said on Twitter that a woman died in the center block when she fell down the stairs of her home.

The latest earthquake shook an already jittery country.

Monday’s stronger quake was the third major quake to hit on September 19 — in 1985, 2017 and now in 2022.

The 2017 and 2022 earthquakes come shortly after the annual September 19 earthquake drills to commemorate the devastating 1985 earthquake that killed some 9,500 people.

France’s National Seismological Agency said the date of Monday’s quake was purely coincidental, AFP reported. “There is no scientific reason to explain it,” the agency noted.