Putin Offers Help to Mexico in Earthquake Relief

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, expressing readiness to provide earthquake relief assistance and possible searches for the wounded trapped under rubble if needed.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the earthquake in Mexico in a telegram to his Mexican counterpart, expressing readiness to provide quake relief assistance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

“President Putin sent a telegram to Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, expressing condolences over multiple casualties and destruction caused by the earthquake in the country’s southeast. Putin also expressed readiness to provide assistance via the Russian Emergencies Ministry in earthquake relief and possible searches for the wounded buried under rubble, if needed,” Peskov told reporters.

A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Mexico late on Tuesday. It was the second major earthquake in the country over the several past weeks with the previous one, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake, occurring on September 8.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located 49 kilometers (some 30.5 miles) south-west of the city of Puebla de Zaragoza at a depth of 60 kilometers, the report by the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) showed.

The death toll stands at 216 people.