Filmed from the air, you can't hear the anguish
of frenzied parents looking for their children.
The frantic scramble in search of the living,
or the agony upon discovering the bodies of the dead.
This was the Enrique Rebsamen School in the south of the capital
after Mexico's deadliest earthquake in over 30 years.
A scene of such chaos that rescuers often couldn't listen for signs
of life, or tell if any cry for help was coming from above or below.
Some children were pulled free from this concrete tomb.
But many relatives waited for more such miracles,
which never came.
TRANSLATION: The only thing they have said
is that we go to forensic centres and hospitals to verify
if our family is there.
But my family has gone there and we dont' have any news
of our family member.
At the scene, Mexico's president Enrique Pena Nieto said
22 children and two adults had died here with another 30 children
among the missing.
But this morning, failing spirits were lifted,
news that a teacher and two students had sent text messages
from beneath the rubble.
44 bulildings were felled across the capital
with absolutely no warning.
That's unusual.
But the quake's epicentre was only 100 miles away,
so the city's audible alert system didn't go off in time
for Mexicans to escape.
There were at least 11 aftershocks.
And many civilians were hit by flying debris,
though this woman ran clear.
Despite scenes like this, in a city of 20 million,
it could have been very much worse.
Though for some of these workers, clinging to their office walls,
it must have felt like the end of the world.
For the superstitious, yesterday was 32 years to the day
since the last major quake killed thousands here.
And despite a safety drill happening only yesterday morning,
Mexico city seems unprepared.
In one prosperous neighbourhood, it took more than two hours
for firefighters and ambulances to arrive.
Leaving neighbours wearing cycle helmets and gardening gloves
to hunt for survivors.
For the past few hours, everyone was a passer-by, shopkeepers, workers,
everyone using hands to get rubble of.
We knew there were people buried inside, nobody knew how many.
People were bringing shovels, wheelbarrows,
buckets, anything they could find from home to try and start lifting
the rubble away and gain access to whoever was inside.
In Jojutla, there were few high-rise buildings
to fall, though the town hall and a church did.
12 people were reported killed here, but many more
livelihoods were destroyed.
In Mexico City, this school is still at
the heart of the rescue effort, hundreds are digging and tunnelling
through the pancaked ruins, in a race to find not just missing
children but their teachers, too.
TRANSLATION: I am waiting to see if
she makes it out.
I hope my mother is alive.
I don't think she's alive.
On the school roof, these signs called for helicopters to stay away,
so the sound of trapped voices could be heard below.
And elsewhere in the capital, hands go up for silence.
So rescuers can listen, but in the
chaos, there is no silence.
This 7.1 magnitude earthquake is Mexico's
second in as many weeks, though nothing can quite prepare for this
terror when it arrives.