A skytrain bridge collapsed when a line 12 train passed through the night from Monday to Tuesday in Mexico City.

The car broke in two as it fell, landing on the road.

A provisional toll shows 20 dead of 70 injured in this accident.

At least 20 people have been killed and dozens more injured in Mexico City after an overhead metro bridge collapsed as a train passed overnight Monday to Tuesday, local authorities said.

The accident, which occurred around 10 p.m. local time near Olivos station, on line 12 of the metro that crosses the south of the capital, left nearly 70 injured, said Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum. quickly arrived at the scene.

Dozens of firefighters on site

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

Others worked to keep curious people away because of the risk of other sections of the structure collapsing.

"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 witness who was not identified. “When the dust cleared, I tried to see what I could do to help. The silence was terrible. Two people were pulled out of the rubble. The rest are still buried,” he said. 'a voice overwhelmed with emotion.

The subway train literally broke in two when the concrete bridge fell.

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

The wreckage of a car was visible under the concrete slabs, which shattered.

It was not known how many people were inside. 

FLASH - A bridge collapsed when passing a metro in #Mexico.

At least 13 people died and 70 others were injured.

(Le Parisien) # Mexicopic.twitter.com / 4a7RLhqKCr

- Mediavenir (@Mediavenir) May 4, 2021

The second accident since the start of the year

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

The 12 is one of the two lines of the Mexican metro which does not run on tires like the Parisian metro, but on traditional railway tracks.

The round of ambulances began quickly in order to convey the most seriously wounded, around 30, to the hospitals in the area, including several people in shock who were nearby.

Traffic on line 12 of the Mexico City metro was completely paralyzed as a result of the accident, an official from STC (Sistema de Transporte Colectivo), the capital's public transport authority, said.

This is the second metro accident since the start of the year.

In January, a fire damaged the network's control facilities, killing one and injuring 29 from smoke fumes.

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

The Mexico City metro was inaugurated in 1969 and serves the capital on a network of twelve lines over some 200 km and 195 stations.

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