Twenty three people including minors died and around 79 were injured after a portion of an overpass carrying a metro train collapsed on a busy road in a southern suburb of Mexico City on Monday night.
The number of fatalities in the rail overpass disaster has climbed to 23, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said, adding that some minors were among those killed. The city’s civil protection agency reported that around 79 were injured.
A short CCTV video published by Milenio TV channel shows a section of an overpass suddenly collapsing on a road packed with vehicles.
Photos from the site show the train cars hanging above the crumbled supports, as rescue teams try to evacuated any passengers that may have been on board.
About two dozen ambulances attended the scene.
Preliminary reports said that the elevated rail collapsed when a vehicle struck one of the support pillars at street level. The train broke in two as it plummeted to the ground below.
Line 12 is the newest line of the Mexico City metro, inaugurated in 2012. It runs south-southwest of the Mexican capital, which has an estimated population of 9.2 million.
El Universal newspaper reported that locals voiced fears over the structure’s safety four years ago, when pillars on Line 12 were damaged by an earthquake. Transportation officials said in 2017 that they quickly repaired the overpass after detecting cracks and other damage.
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