Deadly metro train crash in Mexico City

Mexico City, May 4, 2021:

15 people are dead, and around 70 reported injured so far after an elevated track of a metro train collapsed in Mexico City at 10 pm local time on Monday. The footage from nearby installed security cameras shows the train coming crashing down to the south of the city. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum talked to reporters at the scene and confirmed the number of dead so far. Medics rushed casualties to different hospitals across the city, according to the mayor.

This incident occurred in a part of the 12 line Mexico City subway line that ferries millions of passengers per day.

Emergency workers and first responders who arrived at the scene rushed to rescue survivors from the carriages and the rubble, but the wreckage was deemed too unstable and the train too weak, so work had to be paused till a crane arrived. Photos from the scene showed part of the train hanging from the tracks in a tangle of twisted cables with the faces of two carriages facing the ground and one carriage wholly trapped under the rubble. An eye witness reported seeing the whole structure shaking before collapsing, she recalls running to the scene to see if she could help, but she writes, hearing no screams from the passengers trapped inside.

This accident comes almost exactly one year after the collision between two subway trains that left one dead and several injured. Earlier this year, in January, one person died, and 29 others suffered from smoke inhalation when a fire started in the metro control center, the lights went out, and the ventilation shut down.

This incident comes when Mexico is struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and one of the world’s top death tolls, with more than 217,000 people dead.