Mexico in double trouble

Police, soldiers and emergency workers raced to rescue survivors from the ruins of Mexico's most powerful earthquake in a century, which killed at least 61 people, as storm Katia menaced the country's eastern coast yesterday with heavy rains.

In the southern region hit hardest by the quake, emergency workers looked for survivors -- or bodies -- in the rubble of houses, churches and schools that were torn apart in the 8.1-magnitude quake.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said 45 people were killed in Oaxaca state, 12 in Chiapas and four in Tabasco. But the actual death toll could be over 80, according to figures reported by state officials.

Meanwhile storm Katia made landfall in the east as a Category One hurricane and hours later was downgraded to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles (70 kilometers) per hour.

The storm was bringing rains likely to cause "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially in areas of mountainous terrain" the US National Hurricane Center said.

The government warned that Katia could threaten about one million people and unleash dangerous floods.

Adding to the concerns, authorities warned another massive aftershock could follow within 24 hours of the first quake.

Pena Nieto toured the hardest-hit city, Juchitan in Oaxaca, where at least 36 bodies were pulled from the ruins.

The city's eerily quiet streets were a maze of rubble, with roofs, cables, insulation and concrete chunks scattered everywhere.

The president described the quake as "the largest registered in our country in at least the past 100 years" -- stronger even than a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico City.

More than 200 people were injured across Mexico, officials said.

The epicenter of the quake, which hit late Thursday, was in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 kilometers off the town of Tonala in Chiapas.

Mexico's seismology service estimated it at 8.2 magnitude while the US Geological Survey put it at 8.1 -- the same as in 1985, the quake-prone country's most destructive ever.

The quake was felt as far north as Mexico City -- some 800 kilometers from the epicenter -- where people fled their homes, many in their pajamas, after hearing sirens go off.

Officials initially issued a tsunami alert, but later lifted it. However, the quake triggered waves that reached as far as New Zealand, more than 11,000 kilometers away.

Mexico sits atop five tectonic plates, making it prone to earthquakes, and has two long coastlines that are frequently battered by hurricanes.