© Reuters/Edgard GarridoMexico City residents stand outside their buildings after feeling the tremors from an earthquake in the southern state of Guerrero, in Mexico City March 20, 2012.
Mexico City - A major earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday, unleashing panic as it damaged hundreds of buildings and caused homes in the capital to bounce like "trampolines".
Office workers fled into the street when the 7.4-magnitude quake shook Mexico City for more than a minute. Cell phone lines went down, building were evacuated, traffic snarled and the stock exchange had to suspend trading early.
The governor of the southwestern state of Guerrero, Angel Aguirre, said he had received reports of 500 homes damaged, with some of them knocked down, but he gave no more details.
The tremor was one of the strongest since the devastating 8.1-magnitude earthquake of 1985, which killed thousands in Mexico City.
No deaths were reported on Tuesday and the quake caused no major disruptions to air travel or to oil installations, but it scared many residents.
Martha Suarez, an Argentine living in the capital's Roma neighborhood said she had never known anything like it.
"My TV set fell over, the building felt like it was on a trampoline. This one was like no other I have felt before," Suarez said, holding her little dog close.
Emergency services said 800 houses were damaged in Guerrero state, many of them in Ometepec, near the epicenter of the quake. Officials in Guerrero, which is home of popular Pacific beach resort Acapulco, could not say if buildings had collapsed.
Comment: A three-minute difference and almost the same intensity? It is too much coincidence to let it pass unnoticed.