The U.S. Geological Survey says the 7.1 magnitude quake hit at 1-14 p.m. and was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 123 km southeast of Mexico City.

A powerful earthquake shook central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing buildings in plumes of dust and killing at least 217 people. Thousands fled into the streets in panic, and many stayed to help rescue those trapped.

The head of Mexico’s national Civil Defence Agency has lowered the number of confirmed dead in the earthquake to 217.

Luis Felipe Puente says on his Twitter account that at least 86 people died in Mexico City, 71 in Morelos state, 43 in Puebla, 12 in the State of Mexico, four in Guerrero and one in Oaxaca.

Dozens of buildings tumbled into mounds of rubble or were severely damaged in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby states. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said buildings fell at 44 places in the capital alone as high-rises across the city swayed sickeningly.

The quake is the deadliest in Mexico since the 1985 temblor on the same date that killed thousands. It came less than two weeks after a quake caused 90 deaths in the country’s south.

In pictures: Mexico earthquake havoc

In this photo provided by Francisco Caballero Gout, shot through a window of the iconic Torre Latina, dust rises over down town Mexico City during a 7.1 earthquake on September 19, 2017. Throughout the capital, rescuer workers and residents dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings seeking survivors. People fill Paseo de la Reforma after evacuating from their offices after the earthquake in Mexico City. Adding poignancy and a touch of the surreal, Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake struck on the 32nd anniversary of the earlier temblor that killed thousands and came just two hours after earthquake drills were held across Mexico to mark the date. Rescue workers arrive at a damaged building in Mexico City. The quake appeared to be unrelated to the magnitude 8.1 temblor that hit Sept. 7 off Mexico’s southern coast and also was felt strongly in the capital. Smoke rises out of a building in Mexico City after the earthquake. U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle noted the epicenters of the two quakes were 650 kilometres apart and said most aftershocks are within100 kilometres. A man walks out of the door frame of a building that collapsed after the earthquake, in the Condesa neighbourhood of Mexico City. Mexico’s federal government has declared a state of disaster in Mexico City, freeing up emergency funds. People help an injured man during the rescue operation, in Mexico City. Women react after they were rescued in the wake of an earthquake that hit Mexico City. Much of Mexico City is built on former lakebed, and the soil can amplify the effects of earthquakes centered hundreds of miles away. A damaged building is seen after the earthquake in Mexico City. Search and rescue operations are carried out at the site of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Condesa, Mexico City, Mexico, in this September 19, 2017 image from social media. Throughout the day, rescuers pulled dust-covered people, some barely conscious, some seriously injured, from about three dozen collapsed buildings. A car stands crushed by rubble after a 7.1 earthquake, in Jojutla, Morelos state. The earthquake stunned central Mexico, killing more than 200 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust. People remove debris outside a collapsed building, in Mexico City. People used shopping carts from a nearby supermarket to carry away rubble in a Mexico City neighborhood where three apartment buildings collapsed on the same stretch of street. A rescue worker ask everybody to be quiet as they are searching for people under the rubble of a collapsed building in Mexico City. Volunteers gather water, medicine, and blankets donated by neighbourhood residents in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. Volunteers bring pieces of wood to help prop up sections of the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school, as rescue workers search for children trapped inside, in Mexico City. One of the most desperate rescue efforts was at a primary and secondary school in southern Mexico City, where a wing of the three-storey building collapsed into a massive pancake of concrete floor slabs. A military helicopter flies over a collapsed building as rescue personnel look for people among the rubble, in Mexico City. Rescue workers look at fellow workers searching for people under the rubble of a collapsed building, in Mexico City. A damaged car is seen outside a building in Mexico City. As night began to fall huge flood lights lit up the recovery sites, but workers and volunteers begged for headlamps. Rescuers and people work at a collapsed building in Mexico City. The rescue effort continued long through the night, the work punctuated by cries of “quiet” so searchers could listen for any faint calls for help.

The count does not include one death reported by officials in Oaxaca state.

The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City, freeing up emergency funds. President Enrique Pena Nieto said he had ordered all hospitals to open their doors to the injured.

Mexico City mayor Mancera said 50 to 60 people were rescued alive by citizens and emergency workers in the capital. Authorities said at least 70 people in the capital were hospitalised.

Federal interior minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said authorities had reports of people possibly still being trapped in collapsed buildings. Search efforts were slow because of the fragility of rubble.

“It has to be done very carefully,” he said. And “time is against us.”

The quake sent people throughout the city fleeing from homes and offices, and many people remained in the streets for hours, fearful of returning to the structures.

Alarms blared and traffic stopped around the Angel of Independence monument on the iconic Reforma Avenue.

Electricity and cellphone service wereinterrupted in many areas and traffic was snarled as signal lights went dark.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.1 magnitude quake hit at 1-14 p.m. and was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 123 kim southeast of Mexico City.

Puebla Governor Tony Gali tweeted there were damaged buildings in the city of Cholula, including collapsed church steeples.

A woman walks past a collapsed building after a 7.1 earthquake, in Jojutla, Morelos state, Mexico, on Sept. 19, 2017. | Photo Credit: AP

In Jojutla, a town in Morelos state, the town hall, a church and other buildings tumbled down, and 12 people were reported killed.

The Instituto Morelos secondary school partly collapsed in Jojutla, but school director Adelina Anzures said the earthquake drill that the school held in the morning was a boon when the real thing hit just two hours later.

“I told them that it was not a game, that we should be prepared,” Anzures said of the drill. When the shaking began, children and teachers filed out rapidly and no one was hurt, she said. “It fell and everything inside was damaged.”

Earlier in the day, workplaces across Mexico City held earthquake readiness drills on the anniversary of the 1985 quake, a magnitude 8.0 shake that killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of the capital.

In that tragedy, too, ordinary citizens played a crucial role in rescue efforts that overwhelmed officials.

Market stall vendor Edith Lopez, 25, said she was in a taxi a few blocks away when the quake struck on Tuesday. She said she saw glass bursting out of the windows of some buildings. She was anxiously trying to locate her children, whom she had left in the care of her disabled mother.

Local media broadcast video of whitecap waves churning the city’s normally placid canals of Xochimilco as boats bobbed up and down.

Mexico City’s international airport suspended operations and was checking facilities for damage.

A fireman takes part in an earthquake drill in Mexico City on September 19, 2017 as the country commemorated a new anniversary of the 8.1 quake that in 1985 killed 10,000 people in the Mexican capital. | Photo Credit: AFP

Much of Mexico City is built on former lakebed, and the soil can amplify the effects of earthquakes centered hundreds of miles away.

The new quake appeared to be unrelated to the magnitude 8.1 temblor that hit Sept. 7 off Mexico’s southern coast and also was felt strongly in the capital.

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle noted the epicenters of the two quakes were 650 km apart and said most aftershocks were within 100 km.

There have been 19 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or larger within 250 km of Tuesday’s quake over the past century, Mr. Earle said.

The Earth usually has about 15 to 20 earthquakes this size or larger each year, he noted.

Initial calculations showed that more than 30 million people would have felt moderate shaking from Tuesday’s quake.