Mexico metro collapse kills 23, injures 79

An elevated section of the Mexico City metro has collapsed and sent a subway carriage plunging on to a busy road, killing at least 23 people and injuring at least 79, city officials said.

Rescuers found four bodies inside a rail carriage dangling from the overpass but were unable to remove them. It was not clear if they were included among the 23.

“We don’t know if they are alive,” city mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said of the people possibly trapped inside the carriage following one of the deadliest accidents to hit the subway system, which is among the busiest in the world.

Earlier she said someone had been pulled alive from a car trapped on the road below. She said 49 of the injured were in hospital, and seven were in a serious condition and undergoing surgery.

“There are unfortunately children among the dead,” Ms Sheinbaum added.

The overpass was about 16ft above the road in the borough of Tlahuac, but the train ran above a concrete median strip, which apparently lessened the casualties among motorists on the road below on Monday night.

“A support beam gave way” as the train passed over it, Ms Sheinbaum said.

Hundreds of police and firefighters cordoned off the scene as friends and relatives of people believed to be on the train gathered outside the security perimeter.

Adrian Loa Martinez, 46, said his mother had called to tell him his half-brother and sister-in-law were driving when the overpass collapsed and the beam fell on to their car.

He said his sister-in-law was rescued and taken to hospital, but his halfbrother Jose Juan Galindo was crushed and is feared dead. “He is down there now,” he told journalists, pointing towards the site.

Gisela Rioja Castro, 43, was looking for her husband, 42-year-old

Miguel Angel Espinoza. She said her husband always took that train after finishing work at a store, but he never arrived home and had stopped answering his phone. “Nobody knows anything,” she said.

The collapse occurred on the newest of the Mexico City subway’s routes, Line 12, which stretches far into the city’s south side.

It runs underground through central areas of the city of nine million, but then runs on elevated concrete structures on the outskirts.

The collapse could represent a major blow for foreign relations secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who was Mexico City’s mayor from 2006 to 2012, when Line 12 was built.

Allegations about poor design and construction on the line emerged soon after he left office as mayor. The line had to be partly closed in 2013 for repairs.

He wrote on Twitter: “Of course, the causes should be investigated and those responsible should be identified.”

CARNAGE: Emergency services at the scene of the incident in Mexico City.