Government says at least two dead in quake

MEXICO CITY (UPDATE) - At least two people have died in a powerful earthquake that rocked southern Mexico overnight Thursday, the government said.

The two fatalities came in the southern state of Chiapas, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said. The quake hit off the coast of Chiapas.

A magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mexico, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, shaking buildings across the center and south of the country and sending people running into the streets in the capital.

There were no immediate reports of major damage.

The epicenter was 123 km southwest of the town of Pijijiapan, at a depth of 33 km.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that "widespread, hazardous tsunami waves were possible."

Mexico's civil protection agency said it was the strongest earthquake to hit the country since a devastating 1985 temblor that toppled buildings and killed thousands.

People in Mexico City ran out into the streets in pajamas and alarms sounded after the quake struck just before midnight, a Reuters witness said. Power went out in some neighborhoods.

"I had never been anywhere where the earth moved so much. At first I laughed, but when the lights went out I didn't know what to do. I nearly fell over," said Luis Carlos Briceno, 31, an architect, who was visiting Mexico City. - with a report from Agence France-Presse