Mexico City rail overpass collapses onto roadway, killing 19 and injuring 70
Horror in Mexico City as rail overpass collapses onto a road, killing at least 20 including children and injuring dozens more
- At least 20 people have died, including children, after a railway overpass fell on to a highway in Mexico City
- 70 more have been injured, with at least seven in critical, in the collapse which happened 10.30pm Monday
- More are trapped inside the train but it is not clear if they are alive or dead and rescuers cannot reach them because carriages could collapse, and need to be stabilized using a crane
- At least one person pulled alive from a car under the bridge before rescue efforts were temporarily halted
At least 20 people have been killed including children and dozens more injured after a railway overpass in Mexico City collapsed on to a busy highway.
A train was crossing the overpass around 10.30pm Monday when a support column buckled, sending one car crashing down on to the street along with sections of the bridge, while another car was left dangling precariously.
Rescuers rushed to the scene and began searching the train for survivors, with seven people taken to hospital in serious condition and given surgery.
But rescue efforts had to be temporarily halted amid fears the train is unstable and could collapse further, with people still trapped inside – though mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said it is unclear if those people are alive or dead.
At least one person was pulled alive from a car that had got trapped underneath the bridge before rescue work had to be temporarily halted.
‘There are unfortunately children among the dead,’ Ms Sheinbaum said, without specifying how many.
Nineteen people were killed and 70 injured when an overpass carrying Mexico City metro train cars collapsed onto a roadway
The overpass was about 16ft above the road in the southside borough of Tlahuac, but the train ran above a concrete median strip, which apparently lessened the casualties among motorists on the roadway below.
‘A support beam gave way,’ Sheinbaum said, adding that the beam collapsed just as the train passed over it.
Rescue efforts were briefly interrupted at midnight because the partially dangling train was ‘very weak.’
‘We don’t know if they are alive,’ Sheinbaum said of the people possibly trapped inside the subway car.
Hundreds of police officers and firefighters cordoned off the scene as desperate friends and relatives of people believed to be on the trains gathered outside the security perimeter.
Oscar Lopez, 26, was searching for his friend, Adriana Salas, 26. Six months pregnant, she was riding the subway home from her work as a dentist when her phone stopped answering around the time the accident occurred.
‘We lost contact with her, at 10:50 p.m., there was literally no more contact,’ Lopez said. With little information and a still serious coronavirus situation in Mexico City, Lopez said ‘they are not telling us anything, and people are just crowding together.’
The collapse occurred on the newest of the Mexico City subway’s lines, Line 12, which stretches far into the city’s southside. Like many of the city’s dozen subway lines, it runs underground through more central areas of the city of 9 million, but then runs on elevated, pre-formed concrete structures on the city’s outskirts.
Media stand at a police barricade barring access to the scene of the collapse
The collapse could represent a major blow for Mexican 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 subway line emerged soon after Ebrard left office as mayor. The line had to be partly closed in 2013 so tracks could be repaired.
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,’ he wrote. ‘I repeat that I am entirely at the disposition of authorities to contribute in whatever way is necessary.’
It was not clear whether a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in 2017 could have affected the subway line.
The Mexico City Metro, one of the largest and busiest in the world, has had at least two serious accidents since its inauguration half a century ago.
In March of last year, a collision between two trains at the Tacubaya station left one passenger dead and injured 41 people. In 2015, a train that did not stop on time crashed into another at the Oceania station, injuring 12 people.
