Hope fades in search for Mexico quake survivors

Mexico City : Time pressed on Mexico on Thursday as rescuers looking for survivors picked through the rubble of buildings felled by a powerful earthquake two days earlier, with hopes fading as the hours rolled by.

Authorities put the death toll from Tuesday's 7.1-magnitude quake at 272 people, but it was expected to rise further with more than 200 still missing in Mexico City. 

Volunteers fought off growing fatigue to remove tons of rubble at dozens of flattened buildings in the capital and across several central states.

Experts say the average survival time in such conditions is 72 hours, depending on injuries.

In the capital's central neighborhood of Roma, rescue workers scrambled to locate 23 people believed to be in the wreckage of a collapsed seven-story office building.

They have already pulled 28 survivors from the mountain of rubble. No deaths have been reported at the site so far.

Relatives of the missing waited in anguish for news.

Aaron Flores's sister Karen and friend Paulino Estrada were both trapped inside.

Estrada managed to contact his family by cell phone, even making a video call. But there has been no news from Karen Flores.

"We're feeling disoriented and desperate because we haven't heard anything from her," said her brother, 30.

At other locations, hope turned to grief.

"At 1:00 pm they pulled my mother's body out of the debris, but identified her under a different name, and it wasn't until 5:00 pm that they gave us the bad news," said Maria Dolores Martinez, 38, at a Mexico City morgue.

A psychologist offering free counseling outside the morgue, Aldo Munoz, said: "Unfortunately our country has many open wounds, and people who have directly suffered violence and have lost loved ones in the earthquake really need psychological help."