It was pretty bad Death toll on rise in Mexico quake At least 23 are dead and 160 injured in the powerful earthquake in Colima state. GUADALAJARA, MEXICO -- A powerful earthquake ripped through western and central Mexico, killing at least 23 people and injuring at least 160, as dozens of houses and buildings collapsed and church bells were knocked from their steeples. The death toll rose yesterday as yellow-suited emergency crews were shown on television digging through wrecked buildings in the capital of Colima state, using a pneumatic drill to break through concrete slabs and pulling out victims on stretchers. In Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara, 160 kilometres to the north, dozens of homes partially collapsed and at least 20 people were injured by falling bricks and beams. Bells at one of the colonial city's dozens of churches fell from the bell tower. In Mexico City, about 500 kilometres from the epicentre, buildings swayed from the quake, which struck Tuesday evening, centred near the port and tourist centre of Manzanillo on the Pacific coast. Mexico's national seismological service put the quake's magnitude at 7.6, but the U.S. Geological Survey calculated it at 7.8 at a depth of 33 kilometres -- considered shallow. A magnitude 7.0 quake is capable of causing widespread, heavy damage.