Mexican authorities said at least 13 people were killed and 98 injured after a train derailed in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
The Mexican Navy reported that the interoceanic train, which derailed near the city of Nizanda, was carrying 250 people, including nine crew members and 241 passengers.
Of those on board, 193 were out of danger, while 98 were injured, including 36 who were receiving medical assistance.
Earlier, the Navy had reported a “railway accident near Nizanda, Oaxaca.” “The train’s main locomotive derailed,” he said.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said five of the injured were in critical condition, adding that government officials were sent to the scene to provide assistance to the families of the dead.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the incident, Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos said in a social media post.
The interoceanic train, opened in 2023 during the government of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is part of the broader Interoceanic Corridor project.
The initiative was designed to modernize the rail link across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, connecting the Mexican Pacific port of Salina Cruz with Coatzacoalcos in the state of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico coast.
The Mexican government has sought to develop the isthmus as a strategic trade corridor, expanding ports, railways and industrial infrastructure with the aim of creating a route that can compete with the Panama Canal.
The rail service is also part of a broader effort to expand passenger and freight rail transportation in southern Mexico and stimulate economic development in the region.
With AFP