|HT|
A cargo truck jammed with people who appeared to be Central American migrants rolled over and crashed into a pedestrian bridge over on a highway in southern Mexico on Thursday, killing at least 53 people and injuring nearly five dozen others, authorities reported.
Luis Manuel Moreno, the head of the Chiapas state civil defense office, said a preliminary estimate listed 49 dead and 58 injured. He said about 40 injured had serious wounds and were taken to local hospitals. Later, the death toll in the Mexico road accident was revised to 53.
That meant at least 107 people were crowed into the vehicle. It is not unusual for freight trucks in Mexico to be carrying so many people in migrant-smuggling operations in southern Mexico.
The crash occurred on a highway leading toward the Chiapas state capital. Photos from the scene showed victims strewn across the pavement and inside the truck's freight compartment.
The victims appeared to be immigrants from Central America, though their nationalities had not yet been confirmed. Moreno reported that some of the survivors said they were from the neighboring country of Guatemala.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)