Metro collapse kills at least 23 in Mexico City
Bill Gates reveals plan to divorce
BILL GATES and his wife, Melinda, have announced that they are divorcing.
The Microsoft co-founder and his wife, who launched the world’s largest charitable foundation in 2000, said that they would continue to work together at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Revealing the decision to end their marriage of 27 years, they announced in a joint statement on social media: “We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”
AN elevated section of the Mexico City Metro collapsed on Monday night and sent carriages plunging towards a busy road, killing at least 23 people and injuring at least 79, city officials said yesterday.
Rescuers found four bodies trapped 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. A crane was brought in to lower the carriage.
“We don’t know if they are alive,” Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said, referring to the people possibly trapped inside the carriage following one of the deadliest accidents to hit the metro railway system, which is among the busiest in the world.
Earlier, Ms Sheinbaum 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 serious condition and undergoing surgery. “There are unfortunately children among the dead,” she 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.
“A support beam gave way” as the train passed over it, Ms Sheinbaum said.
Hundreds of police and firefighters cordoned off the scene yesterday 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 Mexico City Metro’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 so tracks could be repaired.
Mr Ebrard wrote on Twitter: “What happened today on the Metro is a terrible tragedy. Of course, the causes should be investigated and those responsible should be identified. I repeat that I am entirely at the disposition of authorities to contribute in whatever way is necessary.”
The Mexico City Metro has had at least two serious accidents since its inauguration half a century ago. In March last year, a collision between two trains left one passenger dead and injured 41 people. In 2015, a train that did not stop in time crashed into another, injuring 12.