Sunday. 03.11.2024

At least 55 people have died in an accident involving a truck transporting migrants in Mexico, according to a local official.

The governor of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, Rutilio Escandon, reported the higher death toll on Twitter on Friday, adding that more than 100 people had been injured.

The truck overturned on Thursday in the town of Chiapa de Corzo, near Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the southern Mexican state.

The trailer, which was presumably taking the migrants towards the United States, crashed into a pedestrian bridge, the head of the civil defence authority of Chiapas, Luis Garcia, told Milenio TV.

According to Garcia, the truck had been travelling too fast on a curve. Injured people who were treated in hospitals were mostly from Guatemala, Mexico's southern neighbour.

Pictures showed numerous bodies, covered with cloth, lying side by side on the road next to the wreckage of the truck trailer.

Pope condolences

According to Escandon, 49 people died at the scene.

The presidents of Mexico and Guatemala expressed their condolences on Twitter. Pope Francis also expressed his "deep sorrow" to the families of the victims in a telegram.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants try to reach the US via Mexico every year. The majority come from Mexico or from one of the Central American countries Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

There is a lot of poverty, violence and corruption there, plus the consequences of droughts and natural disasters.

Many of the migrants are transported by smugglers packed tightly into trucks.

55 dead, 100 injured in truck accident involving migrants in Mexico