A bridge collapses in Mexico City as a subway train passes over it: at least 23 dead and 70 injured

 Sylvie Claire / May 4, 2021

At least 23 people were killed and nearly 70 others injured after the collapse of an overhead subway bridge as a train passed through Mexico City on Monday night, the Mexican capital's risk management and civil protection department announced.

The accident, which occurred around 22:00 local time (03: 00 GMT) near the Olivos station, on the line 12 of the subway which crosses the south of the capital, made nearly 70 injured, said the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, arrived quickly on the scene.

Dozens of firefighters and rescuers were busy clearing the injured and the bodies of passengers trapped in a mass of metal, rubble, cables and deformed rails.

Others were working to keep the curious away because of the risk of collapse of other sections of the structure.

Suddenly, I saw the structure breaking, a witness told Mexican television station Televisa.

Less than a minute later, everything fell and a cloud of dust formed, added the unidentified witness.

When the dust cleared, I tried to see what I could do to help. The silence was terrible. Two people were pulled from the rubble. The others are still buried, he said in an emotional voice.

The subway train literally broke in two as the concrete bridge fell, according to a description by an AFP photographer who arrived at the scene.

Entire sections of the bridge were strewn across the road above which the structure was suspended before collapsing for reasons still unknown.

The carcass of a car was visible under the broken concrete. It was not known how many people were inside.

Officials from the city's prosecutor's office were identifying bodies from the rubble.

Ambulance rounds began quickly to ferry the most seriously injured, about 30, to area hospitals, including several people in shock who were nearby.

This is the second metro accident since the beginning of the year. In January, a fire damaged the network's control facilities, killing one person and injuring 29 others from smoke fumes.

In March 2020, a collision between two trains of the same metro killed one and injured 41.

The Mexico City subway was inaugurated in 1969 and serves the capital with a network of twelve lines covering some 200 km and 195 stations.

According to official data, this metro carries about 4.5 million passengers per day.