Major earthquake hits central Mexico. deadliest since 1985

Last Updated Sep 19, 2017 8:37 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY -- A powerful earthquake jolted central Mexico on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people, cracking building facades and scattering rubble on streets in the capital on the anniversary of a devastating 1985 quake.

The nationwide death toll rose to 119 on Tuesday evening, according to state and city officials.

The earthquake is the deadliest in Mexico since the 1985 quake that killed thousands. It came less than two weeks after another powerful quake left 90 dead in the country's south.

Scores of buildings collapsed into mounds of rubble or were severely damaged in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby states. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said buildings collapsed at 44 places in the capital alone. Between 50 and 60 people were pulled alive from the rubble by citizens and rescue workers in the city.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.1 and was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles southeast of Mexico City.

The federal interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, said authorities had reports of people possibly still being trapped in collapsed buildings. He said search efforts were slow because of the fragility of rubble.

"It has to be done very carefully," he said. And "time is against us."

At one site, reporters saw onlookers cheer as a woman was pulled from the rubble. Rescuers immediately called for silence so that they could listen for others who might be trapped.

Puebla Gov. Tony Galil said there had been damaged buildings in the city of Cholula, including collapsed church steeples.

Earlier in the day, workplaces across the city held readiness drills on the anniversary of the 1985 quake, a magnitude 8.0 shake, which killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of Mexico City.

Thousands of Mexico City residents fled office buildings and hugged to calm each other along the central Reforma Avenue as alarms blared, and traffic stopped around the Angel of Independence monument.

When the quake hit, freelance reporter Manuel Rueda was walking outside a bank in the city's financial district when buildings began to shake. "People here are are used to encountering these types of situations, but this time, I definitely sensed more fear from people," he said on CBSN.

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