President Enrique Peña Nieto says at least 200 people have been injured.
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00:43
The number of people killed by a powerful earthquake off the southern coast of Mexico has risen to at least 58, officials say.
A huge rescue operation is under way in the worst-hit states of Tabasco, Oaxaca and Chiapas where people are feared trapped under rubble.
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22:49
Mexico was severely jolted overnight by its most powerful earthquake in a century, which killed at least 32 people as it struck the Pacific coast, officials said on Friday (Sep 8).
President Enrique Pena Nieto described the 8.2-magnitude quake as "a major earthquake in scale and magnitude, the strongest in the past 100 years."
The southeastern Pacific coast states of Oaxaca and Chiapas appeared to have borne the brunt of the damage, with 23 people killed in Oaxaca alone, Governor Alejandro Murat said.
The worst destruction appeared to be in Juchitan, in the state of Oaxaca, where 17 people were confirmed dead, according to the head of the emergency response agency, Ricardo de la Cruz.
Officials said the death toll there could rise. "There are houses that collapsed with people inside," Luis Felipe Puente, the agency's director general, told TV news channel Milenio.
A hotel also collapsed in Juchitan, the town hall partly caved in and many homes were badly damaged.
Two children were killed in neighbouring Tabasco state, the governor said. One was crushed by a collapsing wall. The other, an infant on a respirator, died after the quake triggered a power outage.
The quake epicentre was about 100 kilometre from the coastal town of Tonala, in far southern Chiapas state, and hit at 11.49pm on Thursday (12.49pm Singapore time Friday), Mexico's seismologic service said.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude slightly lower, at 8.1. That is the same as a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico City - the country's most destructive ever.
The quake shook a large swath of the country and was felt as far north as Mexico City - some 800 kilometres from the epicentre - where people fled their homes after hearing sirens go off as buildings trembled and swayed.
Many were in their night clothes. Some carried babies and pets in their arms as they stumbled onto the streets.
"Not another one. God, please no," said one woman, falling to her knees to pray.
"I was driving when the ground started to shake. The car was wobbling," said Cristian Rodriguez, a 28-year-old Uber driver in Mexico City.
Onelia Guerra, an anxious Oaxaca local who was in the capital Mexico City, was taking a plane back to home to check on her family. "My father and my 14-year-old son are alone there," she told AFP.
The quake occurred as Mexican authorities were bracing for the impact of Hurricane Katia, which strengthened to a Category Two storm as it rumbled towards the state of Veracruz on the Gulf coast.
It is one of three active hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean alongside Irma and Jose.
Mexico is particularly vulnerable to hurricanes, given its location and its Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, and is hit by a least a dozen weather events a year.
TSUNAMI ALERT LIFTED
Speaking from the National Disaster Prevention Centre's headquarters, where he was supervising the emergency response, Pena Nieto said 50 million of Mexico's 120 million people felt the quake.
Social media users also put up videos of swaying buildings and landmarks as the quake struck.
It was also felt in much of Guatemala, which borders Chiapas.
Mexican officials ordered schools to remain closed on Friday in 11 states, including Mexico City, so they could inspect for structural damage.
The quake struck at a depth of 69.7 kilometres, according to the USGS.
Initially, authorities issued a tsunami alert for a huge stretch of coastline starting in central Mexico and spanning Central America all the way down to Ecuador. It was later lifted, but Mexico remained on alert for aftershocks.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre had originally said a tsunami of more than three meters was possible. In the end, the quake caused rough seas but no tsunami, officials said.
Since the 1985 earthquake, Mexican authorities have instituted a stricter building code and developed an alert system using sensors placed on the coasts.
Mexico sits atop five tectonic plates, whose movement makes it one of the most seismically active countries in the world.
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09/09/2017
13:15
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto addressed his nation following the most powerful earthquake to strike in over a century, which left at least five people dead.
Five people were killed in an 8.2-magnitude earthquake off Mexican coast, the largest the country has experienced in the last 100 years, the country's President Enrique Pena Nieto confirmed on Friday.
"According to the preliminary data, five people have died [as the result of the earthquake], material damages have been sustained," the President said at the press conference.
Pena Nieto added that his country had just experienced largest earthquake in the last 100 years.
"It is estimated that 50 million Mexicans felt the tremor," the president said, according to El Economista news outlet.
The impact of the earthquake was felt in the city and state of Mexico, the states of Chiapaz, Veracruz, Hidalgo and several others.
Pena Nieto also reportedly said that 65 aftershocks were felt after the earthquake.
Earlier in the day, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck off the coast of the Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. It was followed by an aftershock with a magnitude of 5.7. A tsunami warning was issued following the quake.
At least five people have been killed, including two children, in the Mexican state of Tabasco, KCTV5 News reported. Tabasco borders the Gulf of Mexico to the north.
"Based on the preliminary earthquake parameters… widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible," the statement read.
According to the US Geological Survey, the shocks registered at 04:49 GMT with the epicenter located 119 kilometers (73 miles) south-west of the Tres Picos settlement at the depth of 33 kilometers (about 20 miles). The quake was felt hundreds of kilometers away in the nation's capital, Mexico City.
According to US-based ABC News, Nieto said that a million people were left without power in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, but power had been restored to 800,000 people by 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday.
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