At least 23 dead and 70 injured after metro overpass collapses in Mexico City
At least 23 people were killed when a metro overpass collapsed in Mexico City, sending a train plunging towards the road below and trapping at least one car under rubble.
The accident occurred on Monday night and police and fire fighters cordoned off the area in the south of the city yesterday as friends and relatives of those believed to be on the train gathered at the scene.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said 70 people were injured in the accident, with 49 admitted to hospital.
Seven people are in a serious condition and require surgery, she said.
Someone was rescued from a car trapped on the road beneath the overpass but “there are unfortunately children among the dead”, Ms Sheinbaum said.
Video showed two carriages hanging from the tracks and a car trapped under rubble.
The overpass was about five metres above the road. Dozens of rescuers searched through wreckage below.
Ms Sheinbaum said it appeared that a support beam collapsed as the train passed over it.
Crowds gathered at the scene yesterday despite the threat posed by Covid-19, which continues to spread through the Mexican capital.
Rescue efforts were briefly interrupted over concerns that the carriages would fall, with authorities calling for a crane to be brought in to stabilise the structure.
Ms Sheinbaum said there were still people trapped inside the train but “we don’t know if they are alive”.
The accident happened near the Olivos station on the metro’s Line 12.
There have been complaints and accusations of irregularities over the construction of the route and part of the line was closed in 2013 so tracks could be repaired.
Marcelo Ebrard, a former mayor of the city who became Mexico’s foreign minister in 2018, oversaw the initial construction of Line 12.
He said the accident was “a terrible tragedy” and urged authorities to carry out an investigation.
He said he would be at “the disposition of authorities to contribute in whatever way is necessary”.
There have been at least two other serious accidents on the city’s metro since its opened more than 50 years ago.
In March last year, one person died and 41 were injured when two trains collided at the Tacubaya station.
In 2015, a train failed to stop on time and crashed into another at the Oceania station, injuring 12 people.