Mexico City (Fides Service) - Twenty nine killed and more than 500 injured is the toll of a violent earthquake, 7.6 of the Richter scale, which struck Mexico during the night of January 21. Pope John Pail II sent his condolences and assurance of prayers to the nation, with a telegramme sent to the Nuncio to Mexico Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello. The deaths were registered in various areas: 25 in Colima state, one in Michoacan, one in Federal district, and 2 in Jalisco. Moreover hundreds of homes were completely destroyed. The towns most affected in the state of Colima are Coquimatlán, Tecomán, Armería, Villa de Álvarez, Cuyutlán, and Colima itself. Caritas-Emergencia in Mexico is already co-ordinating assistance in collaboration with the diocese of Colima. (Fides Service 24/1/2003)