Mexico earthquake 11 family members die during baptism

Mexico earthquake 11 family members die during baptism



Eleven members of a family tragically died during a baby's baptism when the roof of a church collapsed during the powerful earthquake that shook central Mexico on Tuesday.

The Achdiocese of Puebla said the only survivors were the two-month-old girl's father, the priest and the priest's assistant inside Santiago the Apostle Catholic Church, which is located in the isolated town of Atzala in the Puebla state.

He added that at least four minors were among the dead, including the two-month-old baby girl that was being christened inside the colonial-style church.

'It was a scene of horror, sadness with most of the people inside the church dying,' priest's assistant Lorenzo Sanchez told The Associated Press.

He said that those who were able to survive moved to the edges inside of the church when the building began to sway. Those who were killed didn't have time to do so.



'One of the things they taught us is to stick to the firm walls of our church, which is old and its structure a bit deteriorated,' Sanchez said.

When the ground stopped shaking, people called for help using loudspeakers and residents of nearby communities quickly arrived in Atzala with shovels, pickaxes and chains to haul away rubble.

They dug for hours through the crumbling remains of the Santiago Apostol church but found the 11 relatives had tragically died.

Two-month-old Elideth Torres de Leon, who was to be baptized; her sister, Maria, 8; and the girls' mother, Manuela de Leon Garcia, 27, are among the victims.

Covered in dust and exhausted, the rescuers laid the bodies out on the same street where a party was meant to be held after the baptism of the baby girl.



They covered them with canvas to protect them from the rain.

Family members of the dead traveled overnight from other states to attend Wednesday's wake in Puebla, the state capital where mourners said a final goodbye to their loved ones.

Each coffin had a name attached: Florencio, Fidela, Aurelia, Manuela, Maria de Jesus, Carmen, Samuel, Azucena, Feliciana, Susana and Elideth - the girl who was to be baptized.

A relative who lost numerous family members in the tragedy said he was 'shattered'.

'I am in profound pain. I am shattered,' Graciano Villanueva Perez, 73, who lost six relatives — his wife, sister, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, all of whom were attending the baptism, told The Los Angeles Times.

'I don't know what to say,' he added.



At the time of the quake, he was at home resting.

The elderly man's relative, Facundo Flores Nolasco, 42, also lost six loved ones: his wife, mother, brother, daughter-in-law, a niece and a nephew. He was returning from the fields on a bike when the earthquake hit.

'I've been through other earthquakes, but never this strong,' Flores told the Times. 'We had to get down from the bikes and wait for the shaking to end.'

The town of Atzala, which has a population of about 1,200 and is mainly agriculture based, lies just 20 miles from the epicenter of the horrific quake.

Tuesday's magnitude 7.1 quake was centered in Puebla state, where it killed more than 40 people. Across Mexico it killed more than 248 people.

In Mexico City, rescue efforts continued Wednesday at a primary and secondary school where 25 bodies had been found and a young girl was located alive amid the rubble.