A military helicopter carrying officials assessing the damage caused by a powerful earthquake has crashed in southern Mexico, killing 13 people and injuring 15.

The Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office said five women, four men and three children were killed at the crash site and another person died later at the hospital. All of the casualties were on the ground.

Mexico’s interior department said the helicopter was carrying the interior minister, Alfonso Navarrete, and the Oaxaca state governor, Alejandro Murat. Neither suffered serious injuries in the crash.

The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of Friday’s quake at 7.2. The epicentre was near a surfing resort on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast at a depth of 15.3 miles (24.6 km).

The south of Mexico and the capital, Mexico City, are still recovering from earthquakes that caused widespread damage in September 2017.

Media images appeared to show bricks and rubble fallen from buildings and products tumbling off shelves in a supermarket. Tremors were felt as far away as Guatemala.

In Mexico City, tall buildings swayed for more than a minute and seismic alarms sounded. Older structures in the upmarket Condesa neighbourhood knocked into each other, and cracks appeared in plaster and paintwork.



Two young men standing by a building that collapsed during the September earthquake were still hugging minutes after the tremor. People crowded into the streets, one woman in her pyjamas.

Patricia Gutierrez, a 66-year-old English teacher, was taking a nap with her 11-month-old granddaughter, Juliet, when she heard the alarm. “She recognised the sound. When I opened my eyes, I saw her eyes in terror. Her eyes were wide, like plates. She didn’t say anything,” she said.

Gutierrez managed to leave her ground-floor apartment before the quake began. “I left the phone and everything except for my shoes and the baby,” she said.

Guadalupe Martinez, a 64-year-old retiree, said she was still shaking from shock, but that the quake was a far cry from the September event.

“This time it was strong, but it did not jump up and down,” she said.