Japan relief team arrives in quake-hit Mexico

September 22, 2017

MEXICO CITY- A Japanese emergency relief team made up of 72 workers arrived in earthquake-damaged Mexico City on Thursday.

They started search and rescue activities for the victims of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that hit the Latin American country's central region on Tuesday.

"We'll engage in rescue operations to the best of our abilities," Toshihide Kawasaki, emergency relief coordinator of the Foreign Ministry, who leads the Japanese team, told reporters.

The team was dispatched to a scene of an apartment building collapse in Benito Juarez in the southern part of Mexico City at the request of the Mexican government.

The apartment building was under reconstruction and there were no residents at the time of the major earthquake, but a woman who was visiting the site for cleaning got trapped under the wreckage, according to neighbors.

The Japanese rescue workers are racing against time ahead of the passage of 72 hours after the earthquake. Survival rates are believed to fall rapidly after 72 hours.

The death toll in the disaster has risen to 273, according to rescue authorities. Jiji Press