Mexico earthquake: Helicopter crashes in emergency killing 13

SANTIAGO JAMILTEPEC (Reuters): A helicopter carrying senior officials has crashed while they assessed damage from Friday’s Mexican earthquake, killing 13 including three children.

Mexico’s interior minister and the governor of the south-west Oaxaca state were on board, but neither was hurt.

The aircraft’s pilot lost control as it was coming in to land, Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said.

The 7.2-magnitude quake’s epicentre was in Oaxaca but it shook buildings in Mexico City, 350km (217 miles) away.

No deaths have been reported in the earthquake itself.

Officials said the helicopter had crashed on top of two vans in a field while trying to land not far from the epicentre, near the town of Pinotepa de Don Luis.

Twelve people – five women, four men and three children – were killed at the scene and another died in hospital later, Oaxaca prosecutor’s office said.

It is not clear whether anyone in the aircraft was among the dead, although Mr Navarrete said some passengers were injured.

Friday’s quake was 24.6km underground and some buildings were damaged.

After the tremor, thousands of people were seen fleeing buildings in Mexico City as the ground shook.

Some were crying, while others hugged each other on the streets of the capital. Traffic stopped for a few minutes.

The authorities activated earthquake alert systems in four states, and Mexico City. They urged residents to stay outdoors.

Last September, two devastating earthquakes in Mexico killed hundreds of people.

There were clouds of dust near buildings already damaged by the September quakes.

Mexico is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, sitting on top of three of the Earth’s largest tectonic plates – the North American, Cocos and Pacific plates.