Mexico City (CNN) A Mexican navy official has apologized for confusion over reports that a 12-year-old girl was trapped alive after a Mexico City school collapsed in the wake of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that killed more than 280 people nationwide.

Those reports had riveted Mexicans pulling for an uplifting rescue when the temblor damaged the Enrique Rebsamen school Tuesday.

Rescue workers said Wednesday they believed they'd made contact with a girl trapped in the rubble at the school, where at least 19 children and six adults were killed.

For more than a day, rescuers told reporters they were trying to reach and free the girl -- efforts that were shown live on television.

But by Thursday afternoon, navy official Angel Enrique Sarmiento said all the school's children had been accounted for -- either having died, been hospitalized or found safe -- and there was no student known to be in the rubble.

Sarmiento, deputy navy secretary, followed up with an apology Thursday night, while emphasizing that someone still could be alive in the debris.

"I want to make it very clear that the information the Mexican public received about the existence of a girl who was alive underneath the rubble was released by the navy based on the technical reports and the accounts of the civilian and navy rescuers," he said.

"I offer the Mexican public an apology for the information disseminated (Thursday) afternoon where I affirmed that I did not have details about a supposed child survivor in this tragedy."

A search of the school continues, though the last time a body was found -- that of a 58-year-old woman, the navy said -- was Thursday morning.

Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Relatives of missing people wait for news in front of a collapsed building in Mexico City on Friday, September 22. A magnitude 7.1 quake hit central Mexico three days earlier. Hide Caption 1 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Rescue workers search for survivors Thursday, September 21, at a collapsed apartment building in Mexico City. Hide Caption 2 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A religious statue is salvaged from a former convent that was heavily damaged in Tlayacapan, Mexico. This was the second earthquake to hit Mexico in two weeks. A magnitude 8.1 quake struck off the country's southern coast on September 8. Hide Caption 3 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A wall is damaged at a home in Tlayacapan on Wednesday, September 20. Hide Caption 4 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Volunteers organize donations in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 5 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Rescuers in Mexico City work to save a child trapped inside the Enrique Rebsamen elementary school on September 20. Rescue workers said they believed they'd made contact with a girl trapped in the rubble at the school. But by the next afternoon, navy official Angel Enrique Sarmiento said all the school's children had been accounted for and there was no student in the rubble. He apologized for the confusion. Hide Caption 6 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Men carry beams of wood to offer help in Mexico City's Roma neighborhood on September 20. Hide Caption 7 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Families prepare to sleep under tarps outside their quake-damaged building in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 8 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Rescuers and firefighters lower a corpse from a house in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 9 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Volunteers and rescue workers search for people trapped inside the Enrique Rebsamen school on September 20. Hide Caption 10 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A volunteer in Mexico City asks for silence as a flattened building is searched for survivors on September 20. Hide Caption 11 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Members of the Mexican Army nap September 20 after assisting in search-and-rescue missions in Mexico City. Hide Caption 12 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico People look for survivors in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 13 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A man walks his bike past a partially collapsed building in Jojutla on September 20. Hide Caption 14 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Volunteers arrange food and other donated supplies at a distribution point in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 15 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Children's toys are seen in a damaged building in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 16 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A survivor is pulled out of rubble in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 17 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico People sleep on the street next to damaged homes in Jojutla on September 20. Hide Caption 18 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Soldiers remove debris from a collapsed building in Mexico City on September 20. Hide Caption 19 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico An injured person is carried away after being rescued in Mexico City on Tuesday, September 19. The earthquake happened on the anniversary of a 1985 quake that killed an estimated 9,500 people in and around Mexico City. Hide Caption 20 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Rescue workers remove rubble from a Mexico City building on September 19. Hide Caption 21 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Rescue workers in Mexico City search for people trapped inside the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school on September 19. Hide Caption 22 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A man comforts a student outside a school in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 23 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A police officer runs toward the site where a building collapsed in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 24 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Rescue workers and volunteers search a collapsed building in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 25 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A man is rescued under rubble in Mexico City's Condesa area on September 19. Hide Caption 26 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Hide Caption 27 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A woman's crushed body hangs from a collapsed building in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 28 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Recovery efforts take place at the collapse of a residential building in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 29 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico The quake damaged the Jojutla Municipal Palace. Hide Caption 30 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A search goes on at the scene of a collapsed building in Mexico City's Del Valle neighborhood on September 19. Hide Caption 31 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Emergency workers remove debris as they search for survivors in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 32 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico People react in Mexico City just after the quake hit. Hide Caption 33 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico People gather on a Mexico City street after office buildings were evacuated because of the quake. Hide Caption 34 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A building is damaged in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 35 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A woman in Mexico City cries as she tries to reach people on her cell phone after the quake. Hide Caption 36 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico Patients from a Mexico City hospital receive treatment outside after the hospital was evacuated on September 19. Hide Caption 37 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A woman in Mexico City reacts after the quake. Hide Caption 38 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico People remove debris off a building that collapsed in Mexico City. Hide Caption 39 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A car is crushed by debris in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 40 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico A woman receives medical assistance after she was injured in Mexico City on September 19. Hide Caption 41 of 42 Photos: Deadly earthquake rocks central Mexico People stand inside a Mexico City building that collapsed in the quake. Hide Caption 42 of 42

Sarmiento did not provide details about why officials are leaving open the possibility of finding someone else alive in the collapsed school. Eleven people who either escaped or were helped out of the school already had been taken to a hospital.

Reports about the girl first came Wednesday when rescuers said they had come into contact with a trapped girl, and that temperature readings suggested others might be alive inside. Citing rescuers, CNN affiliate Foro TV initially reported that rescue teams had given the girl oxygen and water.

But seemingly contradictory information followed. By Thursday morning, navy Adm. Jose Luis Vergara had said that the girl's exact location wasn't known. And by the afternoon, Sarmiento's announcement all but ended the speculation about a trapped girl.

Details about what the rescuers may have encountered weren't immediately available.

Meanwhile, searches at other collapsed buildings in central Mexico continued Friday as volunteer brigades joined government efforts to reach possible survivors and clear away rubble. Amid the chaos, some Mexicans took comfort in how the disaster had brought them together.

Two earthquakes in 12 days

Tuesday's earthquake turned dozens of buildings in central Mexico into dust and debris, killing at least 286 people, including one in Oaxaca, almost 480 kilometers (300 miles) from Mexico City.

President Enrique Peña Nieto declared a national emergency, and the country is observing three days of national mourning. An unaccounted number of people are staying at shelters around Mexico City after losing their homes. Schools have closed indefinitely, and millions remain without power.

Despite Peña Nieto's request that people stay indoors while rescue attempts continue, residents joined forces with rescue teams to search for survivors.

'We know he is in there'

Throughout the region, buses carried volunteers from Mexico and beyond to disaster sites, where they bolstered search-and-rescue efforts. People formed human chains to pass along supplies and remove chunks of lumber and concrete.

It reminded some of the last time an earthquake of this scale hit the nation's capital. One man, who gave his name as Roberto, recalled pulling people out of wreckage in Mexico City 32 years ago. It was worse then, he said, crediting enhanced building regulations with minimizing the damage.

"I can remember the feeling of lifelessness in their bodies," he said. "I remember my hands sinking into their skin. They were decomposing. It was horrible."

In Mexico City's Condesa section, a large rescue operation was underway at a collapsed building that had housed an outsourcing company. At least 35 people are believed to still be buried in the rubble of the building on Alvaro Obregon.

Marco Antonio Garcia Salsedo said he believes his cousin is still alive in the building. His family heard that Angel Xavier Sousado Sandovar somehow placed a phone call to a friend in New York from inside the rubble.

The family has been camping out near the rescue site since Tuesday, holding out hope that Sousado would emerge from the building. The relatives don't want to miss an announcement, and they don't want the government to raze the site before their loved one is found.

"We know he is in there, and we are waiting for him," Garcia said.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, police blocked a road leading to the corporate offices of a food processing center that also was damaged. Cristobal Perres Garcia, 59, said police told him that one of his cousins -- a worker at the building -- was among several who died when it collapsed.

A rescue operation is underway Thursday at a collapsed building in Mexico City's Condesa section.

In Puebla state, southeast of Mexico City, the quake crumbled a church, killing a girl who was being baptized and 11 others attending the event, Gov. Tony Gali said. More than 9,700 homes and 100-plus government buildings were damaged in the state, Gali said.

In all, 148 deaths were reported in Mexico City, one of North America's most populous metropolises with more than 21 million people. Elsewhere, 73 deaths were reported in Morelos state, 45 in Puebla state, 13 in the state of Mexico, six in Guerrero state and one in Oaxaca state.

'I thought someone was kicking my chair'

About 2,000 public schools were damaged in Tuesday's quake, Secretary of Public Education Aurelio Nuños said. Sixteen of the 212 affected schools in Mexico City had serious damage, he said.

Beyond the barricade:Walk w/me as authorities give us closer access to the efforts to save trapped children at #EnriqueRébsamen #mexicoquake pic.twitter.com/z3Av8gVJur — Rosa Flores (@RosaFlores) September 21, 2017

At the private Colegio Enrique Rabsamen, where rescuers thought they were trying to reach the girl, the temblor caused the school to fold in on itself, sandwiching and collapsing classroom onto classroom.

Crews remained there Thursday evening, but the sense of urgency had dissipated, along with the crowds of onlookers. In their place, well-wishers left bunches of white floral arrangements around the block from the school.

The loss of life weighed heavily on volunteers.

"This is a tragedy," said volunteer Ivan Ramos. "It's kids. It will take a long time to heal."