A Mexico City school that collapsed in a powerful earthquake on Sept. 19, killing 19 children and seven adults, buckled under the heavy weight of floors added over the years with scant steel support, according to experts and witnesses.
The tragedy at the privately owned Enrique Rebsamen school in southern Mexico City has become a symbol of the devastation inflicted by the country's 7.1 magnitude quake, the worst in a generation. At least 355 people died in the capital and surrounding states.
"The building was badly designed, poorly calculated and poorly constructed," said Alfredo Perez, a 52-year old civil engineer who dashed to the school shortly after the quake to help rescue efforts. "The reinforced concrete doesn't comply with specifications in construction regulations."