Mexico earthquake Kids are rescued from collapsed school

Mexico earthquake Kids are rescued from collapsed school

The race is on to rescue a 12-year-old girl who was buried under rubble after her school collapsed during a devastating magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Mexico City.

At least 248 people have been killed since the catastrophe struck on Tuesday - with safety experts fearing the number could climb up to 1,000.

A dramatic video shows rescue workers and bystanders who noticed an opening in the structure of a three-story building that collapsed at the Enrique Rebsamen primary and secondary schools.

Rescuers have battled for 15 hours to save one girl, believed to have given her name as Frida Sofia, who they found alive after she poked her fingers through the rubble. She also told officials there were five other children under the rubble with her.

As her chances of survival diminish with each passing hour, rescuers vowed to continue with search efforts.

Rescuers had earlier seen her hand protruding from the debris and the girl wiggled her fingers when asked if she was still alive.

'There's a girl alive in there, we're pretty sure of that, but we still don't know how to get to her,' Admiral Jose Luis Vergara told Televisa.

'The hours that have passed complicate the chances of finding alive or in good health the person who might be trapped,' he said.

More than 50 survivors have been plucked from several disaster sites in Mexico City since Tuesday afternoon's 7.1-magnitude quake, leading to impassioned choruses of 'Yes we can!' from the first responders.  

Eleven other children were rescued from the Enrique Rebsamen School, where students are aged roughly six to 15. Twenty-one children and five adults there were killed.

According to El Universal, Frida Sofia told rescue worker she was 'thirsty' when they spoke to her. She also said she could not move. But the paper also reported that - bafflingly - there was no girl of the name 'Frida Sofia' on the school's register, despite the girl in the rubble responding to the name. 

But just as it seemed rescuers were going to save the girl, they had to suspend their work this morning due to a collapse within the building's debris, local media reported.

'This area is evacuated because the building is at risk of falling. We are waiting for engineers who are going to evaluate... to see if we must knock it down,' a soldier said in front of an abandoned building in Mexico's central Roma neighborhood, one of the areas hardest hit by the quake. 

Rescue workers also recovered the body of a woman from the ruins of the school earlier today.

The Mexican Navy issued a statement saying the 58-year-old woman had worked at there.

Meanwhile a dog - co-incidentally named Frida - is helping rescuers search among the rubble in Mexico City. She has saved over 50 people in her career.

Even the official Twitter account for the country's presidency has hailed the Mexican Navy Labrador a hero as she keeps digging for survivors with her special boots and goggles.    

Another video shared to Twitter shows rescue workers trying to reach a little girl. 

In a video of the school's initial collapse, rescuers can be seen pulling the facade from the exterior of the school in an attempt to make the hole larger, as crying children can be heard.

One of the men reaches down and pulls a crying little girl out from the rubble, as a small boy is rescued moments later from the destroyed school building.    

Rescue personnel worked through the night and day on Wednesday in search of at least three missing people at the school, which has students as young as first-graders enrolled.

Dozens died in the quake when the three-story building at the school collapsed into a pile of rubble, Felipe Puente of the Ministry of the Interior's Civil Protection unit said earlier Wednesday.  

Meanwhile Popocatépetl volcano, to the southeast of the capital, has erupted - possibly as a consequence of the earthquake.

A church collapsed at the foot of the volcano, according to Forbes magazine, killing at least 15 worshipers.     

Hopes rose Wednesday when workers told local media they had detected signs that one girl was alive and she speaking to them through a hole dug in the rubble. Thermal imaging suggested several more people might be in the airspace around her.

A volunteer rescue worker, Hector Mendez, said cameras lowered into the rubble suggested there might be four people still inside, but he added that it wasn't clear if anyone beside the girl was alive.

Dr. Alfredo Vega, who was working with the rescue team, said that a girl who he identified only as 'Frida Sofia' had been located alive under the pancaked floor slabs.

Vega said 'she is alive, and she is telling us that there are five more children alive' in the same space.  

Education Secretary Aurelio Nuno confirmed that the girl was alive, but said it was still not confirmed if other children were also alive under the rubble. Strangely, Nuno said, no relatives of a girl named Frida could be found.

While