Mexico quake rescuers struggle to free girl, other survivors
MEXICO CITY — The wiggling fingers of a young girl trapped in the rubble of her collapsed school in Mexico City raised hopes and prodded rescuers to work furiously hour after hour Wednesday in a delicate effort trying to free her from unstable debris — a drama that played out at dozens of buildings toppled by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 245 people.
The death toll rose after Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the number of confirmed dead in the capital had risen from 100 to 115. An earlier federal government statement had put the overall toll at 230, including 100 deaths in Mexico City.
Mancera also said that late Wednesday two women and a man had been pulled alive from a collapsed office building in the city’s centre.
But it was the rescue operation at the Enrique Rebsamen school, where at least 21 children and four adults perished in Tuesday’s quake, that was seen as emblematic of Mexicans’ rush to save survivors before time runs out.