An overpass in Mexico City’s metro collapsed Monday night, sending a train plunging downward, trapping cars under rubble and killing at least 23 people, authorities said.
Mexico City’s civil protection agency tweeted that almost 70 people were injured in the accident in the south of Mexico’s capital, which happened at 10:30 PM local time.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum rushed to the area. A video showed at least one broken train along with dozens of rescuers searching through the rubble of the collapsed overpass. Cars could be seen trapped underneath.
The accident happened on the metro’s Line 12, the construction of which has been plagued by complaints and accusations of irregularities.
Around 65 others received hospital treatment following the dramatic accident, one of the worst to strike the Mexico City metro since it was inaugurated in 1969. Anxious relatives gathered at the site awaiting news of those believed to have been aboard the train. Efrain Juarez said that his son was in the wreckage.
“My daughter-in-law called us. She was with him and she told us the structure fell down over them,” he said. Another man who did not give his name said that his brother was among those trapped.
“He came with his wife and they managed to get her out, but he was crushed there and we don’t know anything,” he said. Dozens of emergency workers were seen trying to rescue victims from the carriages.
Monday’s incident comes just over a year after two subway trains collided in Mexico City, leaving one dead and around 40 injured as panicked passengers escaped through dense smoke. In January of this year, one person died and 29 suffered smoke inhalation injuries in a fire in the metro’s control centre.
The latest accident comes at a time when Mexico is struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 217,000 people dead in the country — one of the world’s highest tolls.
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