Mexico City, September 20 (RHC)-- In Mexico, a massive 7.1-magnitude quake struck 100 miles southeast of Mexico City Tuesday, collapsing dozens of buildings around the capital city and trapping schoolchildren, workers and residents beneath the rubble.

The Mexican government said this morning at least 217 people are dead, but that number is expected to rise as rescuers with sniffer dogs work to cut through collapsed structures. Among the dead are at least 21 students at a primary school in southern Mexico City and 15 worshipers who died during a Catholic mass when the earthquake triggered an eruption at a volcano southeast of the city.

The disaster struck just hours after an earthquake preparedness drill held to mark the 32nd anniversary of a 1985 earthquake that killed 10,000 people. And it came less than two weeks after the most powerful earthquake in a century struck near the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca, killing at least 90 people and leveling thousands of homes.