AMN/ WEB DESK
At least 54 people have been killed and over 100 injured after the truck they were being transported in crashed in southern Mexico. Authorities say, more than 150 people, said to be migrants from Central America, were crammed into the truck’s trailer when it rolled in the state of Chiapas.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the crash as very painful and wrote on Twitter that he deeply regrets the tragedy.
It is one of the worst accidents of its kind in Mexico. Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón said, forty-nine people were confirmed dead at the scene and five more died in hospital. He said, 105 people including 22 women were also injured in the crash.
Emergency officials said, the victims included men, women and children. Their nationalities have not been confirmed, but local officials said, most of the people on board were from Honduras and Guatemala.
The truck was reportedly speeding when it flipped on a sharp bend and hit a pedestrian bridge on a main road leading to the Chiapas state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Chiapas, which neighbours Guatemala, is a major transit point for undocumented migrants.
The US-Mexico border is the deadliest single crossing in the world according to data from the International Organization for Migration. This year alone, at least 650 people have died trying to cross the border – more than in any other year since IOM’s records began.