Mexico earthquake: Navy official apologizes over reports of trapped girl

A Mexican navy official has apologized for confusion over reports that a 12-year-old girl was trapped alive after a Mexico City school collapsed in the wake of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that killed more than 280 people nationwide.

Those reports had riveted Mexicans pulling for an uplifting rescue when the temblor damaged the Enrique Rebsamen school Tuesday.

Rescue workers said Wednesday they believed they’d made contact with a girl trapped in the rubble at the school, where at least 19 children and six adults were killed.

For more than a day, rescuers told reporters they were trying to reach and free the girl – efforts that were shown live on television.

But by Thursday afternoon, navy official Angel Enrique Sarmiento said all the school’s children had been accounted for – either having died, been hospitalized or found safe – and there was no student known to be in the rubble.

A look at the Enrique Rebsamen elementary school in Mexico City, which collapsed in the earthquake. The after photo on the right is from Wednesday, September 20, when rescuers continued to search through the rubble.

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Sarmiento, deputy navy secretary, followed up with an apology Thursday night, while emphasizing that someone still could be alive in the debris.

“I want to make it very clear that the information the Mexican public received about the existence of a girl who was alive underneath the rubble was released by the navy based on the technical reports and the accounts of the civilian and navy rescuers,” he said.

“I offer the Mexican public an apology for the information disseminated (Thursday) afternoon where I affirmed that I did not have details about a supposed child survivor in this tragedy.”

A search of the school continues, though the last time a body was found – that of a 58-year-old woman, the navy said – was Thursday morning.

Relatives of missing people wait for news in front of a collapsed building in Mexico City on Friday, September 22. A magnitude 7.1 quake hit central Mexico three days earlier.

Rescue workers search for survivors Thursday, September 21, at a collapsed apartment building in Mexico City.

A religious statue is salvaged from a former convent that was heavily damaged in Tlayacapan, Mexico. This was the second earthquake to hit Mexico in two weeks. A magnitude 8.1 quake struck off the country's southern coast on September 8.

A wall is damaged at a home in Tlayacapan on Wednesday, September 20.

Volunteers organize donations in Mexico City on September 20.

Rescuers in Mexico City work to save a child trapped inside the Enrique Rebsamen elementary school on September 20. Rescue workers said they believed they'd made contact with a girl trapped in the rubble at the school. But by the next afternoon, navy official Angel Enrique Sarmiento said all the school's children had been accounted for and there was no student in the rubble. He apologized for the confusion.

Men carry beams of wood to offer help in Mexico City's Roma neighborhood on September 20.

Families prepare to sleep under tarps outside their quake-damaged building in Mexico City on September 20.

Rescuers and firefighters lower a corpse from a house in Mexico City on September 20.

Volunteers and rescue workers search for people trapped inside the Enrique Rebsamen school on September 20.

A volunteer in Mexico City asks for silence as a flattened building is searched for survivors on September 20.

Members of the Mexican Army nap September 20 after assisting in search-and-rescue missions in Mexico City.

People look for survivors in Mexico City on September 20.

A man walks his bike past a partially collapsed building in Jojutla on September 20.

Volunteers arrange food and other donated supplies at a distribution point in Mexico City on September 20.

Children's toys are seen in a damaged building in Mexico City on September 20.

A survivor is pulled out of rubble in Mexico City on September 20.

People sleep on the street next to damaged homes in Jojutla on September 20.

Soldiers remove debris from a collapsed building in Mexico City on September 20.

An injured person is carried away after being rescued in Mexico City on Tuesday, September 19. The earthquake happened on the anniversary of a 1985 quake that killed an estimated 9,500 people in and around Mexico City.

Rescue workers remove rubble from a Mexico City building on September 19.

Rescue workers in Mexico City search for people trapped inside the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen school on September 19.

A man comforts a student outside a school in Mexico City on September 19.

A police officer runs toward the site where a building collapsed in Mexico City on September 19.

Rescue workers and volunteers search a collapsed building in Mexico City on September 19.

A man is rescued under rubble in Mexico City's Condesa area on September 19.

A woman's crushed body hangs from a collapsed building in Mexico City on September 19.

Recovery efforts take place at the collapse of a residential building in Mexico City on September 19.

The quake damaged the Jojutla Municipal Palace.

A search goes on at the scene of a collapsed building in Mexico City's Del Valle neighborhood on September 19.

Emergency workers remove debris as they search for survivors in Mexico City on September 19.

People react in Mexico City just after the quake hit.

People gather on a Mexico City street after office buildings were evacuated because of the quake.

A building is damaged in Mexico City on September 19.

A woman in Mexico City cries as she tries to reach people on her cell phone after the quake.

Patients from a Mexico City hospital receive treatment outside after the hospital was evacuated on September 19.

A woman in Mexico City reacts after the quake.

People remove debris off a building that collapsed in Mexico City.