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Rescuers
work at
a site
where an
overpass
for a
metro
partially
collapsed
with
train
cars on
it at
Olivos
station
in
Mexico
City,
Mexico,
May 3,
2021.
(REUTERS/Luis
Cortes)
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Mexico
City
metro
overpass
collapses
onto
road; 23
dead
By
E.
EDUARDO
CASTILLO
apnews.com
MEXICO
CITY -
An
elevated
section
of the
Mexico
City
metro
collapsed
and sent
a subway
car
plunging
toward a
busy
boulevard
late
Monday,
killing
at least
23
people
and
injuring
about
70, city
officials
said.
Rescuers
searched
a car
left
dangling
from the
overpass
for
hours
for
anyone
who
might be
trapped.
Those
efforts
were
suspended
early
Tuesday,
however,
because
of
safety
concerns
for
those
working
near the
precariously
dangling
car. A
crane
was
brought
in to
help
shore it
up.
“We
don’t
know if
they are
alive,”
Mayor
Claudia
Sheinbaum
said of
the
people
possibly
trapped
inside
the car
following
one of
the
deadliest
accidents
in the
city’s
subway
system,
which is
among
the
busiest
in the
world.
Earlier
Sheinbaum
said
someone
had been
pulled
alive
from a
car that
was
trapped
on the
road
below.
She said
49 of
the
injured
were
hospitalized,
and that
seven
were in
serious
condition
and
undergoing
surgery.
“There
are
unfortunately
children
among
the
dead,”
Sheinbaum
said,
without
specifying
how
many.
The
overpass
was
about 5
meters
(16
feet)
above
the road
in the
borough
of
Tlahuac,
but the
train
ran
above a
concrete
median
strip,
which
apparently
lessened
the
casualties
among
motorists
on the
road
below.
“A
support
beam
gave
way”
just as
the
train
passed
over it,
Sheinbaum
said.
The
Mexico
City
Metro
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.
Hundreds
of
police
officers
and
firefighters
cordoned
off the
scene
Tuesday
as
desperate
friends
and
relatives
of
people
believed
to be on
the
train
gathered
outside
the
security
perimeter.
Despite
the fact
that the
coronavirus
situation
remains
serious
in
Mexico
City,
they
crowded
together
as they
waited
for
news.
Adrián
Loa
Martínez,
46, said
that his
mother
called
him to
tell him
that his
half-brother
and
sister-in-law
were
driving
when the
overpass
collapsed
and that
beam
fell
onto
their
car.
He
said
that his
sister-in-law
was
rescued
and sent
to a
hospital,
but that
his
half-brother
José
Juan
Galindo
was
crushed
and he
feared
he was
dead.
“He is
down
there
now,” he
told
journalists
pointing
toward
the
site.
Gisela
Rioja
Castro,
43, was
looking
for her
husband,
42-year-old
Miguel
Ángel
Espinoza.
She said
that her
husband
always
take
that
train
after
finishing
work at
a store,
but he
never
got home
and had
stopped
answering
his
phone.
When she
heard
what has
happened,
she
immediately
feared
the
worst
but has
gotten
no
information
from the
authorities.
“Nobody
knows
anything,”
she
said.
The
collapse
occurred
on the
newest
of the
Mexico
City
subway’s
lines,
Line 12,
which
stretches
far into
the
city’s
south
side.
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
concrete
structures
on the
city’s
outskirts.
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.
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