At least 20 people were killed and 70 injured when a high section of Mexico City collapsed on a subway, leaving the ship split in half and hanging illegally.
The accident, which happened late Monday, came after reports that a car had hit a pillar supporting the bridge. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, speaking to reporters wearing a hard hat, said the cost of holding off was gone.
Videos shared on social media grabbed the moment the line fell, and crashed into a busy street below. Sheinbaum said one car was trapped under the train.
Rescue workers were on the scene, searching for survivors or climbers. Forty-nine people were taken to hospital.
The accident happened on Line 12, a brand new railway line, south of the capital. The line was closed when Marcelo Ebrard, now a foreign minister and considered a rival in place of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was the city’s mayor.
On Twitter, Ebrard pledged all his support in investigating the “terrible tragedy”.
Line 12 was slightly closed in 2014-15 to correct what the authorities at the time were wrong about. Four stations were also closed after a major earthquake shook the capital in 2017.
One survivor told Foro TV that he had heard that the train “suddenly broke down and we were all taken to the other side. My phone came out of my hands… I saw people who fainted and fainted.”
