Mexico earthquake: Desperate parents pull children out of rubble after 7.1 aftershock

In the ongoing rescue operation that had began after a powerful seismic jolt of magnitude 7.1 earthquake that rocked Mexico on 19th September, parents of young children, who are feared buried under a Mexico City school, are constantly pulling out their children through rubble.

More than 248 people have reportedly been killed in the earthquake causing serious damage to lives and property in the region.

There were chaotic scenes at the school as parents clung to hope their children had survived.

“They keep pulling kids out, but we know nothing of my daughter,” said 32-year-old Adriana D'Fargo, her eyes red after hours waiting for news of her seven-year-old.

Three survivors were found at around midnight.

“Relatives of Fatima Navarro,” one soldier shouted through cupped hands at the school the Coapa district in the south of the city. "Fatima is alive!"

Pedro Serrano, a 29-year-old doctor, was one of the ordinary Mexicans who had volunteered to join the rescue effort. He crawled into a crevice amid the tottering pile.

“We dug holes, then crawled in on our bellies,” Serrano said.

With barely room to move, he wriggled further into the destroyed school.

“We managed to get into a collapsed classroom. We saw some chairs and wooden tables,” Serrano said.

“The next thing we saw was a leg, and then we started to move rubble and we found a girl and two adults — a woman and a man.”