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At least six people are dead after a cargo train known as “La Bestia”, or “The Beast” derailed in Huimanguillo in southern Mexico on Sunday. The toll is likely to keep rising as rescue crews continue to search the wreckage.
According to the LA Times, heavy rains may have loosened the earth beneath the tracks and shifted the rails, causing the derailment that took place at around 3:00 a.m. Roughly 250 people were on board the train at the time of the accident, most of them Hondurans, officials said.
Later reports quoted Tabasco State officials as saying the derailment had been caused by thieves stealing the nails and plates from the tracks.
Reuters reports, “Ambulances were unable to reach the accident scene in Huimanguillo in the southern state of Tabasco because of the difficult terrain.
“Images from the scene showed freight cars upturned and wheels separated from their base. Officials said eight of the 12 cars overturned and that a Honduran man was among the dead.
“‘This train carries a lot of (illegal) migrants from Central America,” Cesar Burelo, emergency services director in Tabasco, told local television. ‘(Those five) were the visible dead. It could be that as the structure of the train is removed … more bodies could appear.’
“Engineers were planning to move the overturned wagons on Monday.
“Burelo said it would be difficult to determine the total number of people aboard the train at the time of the pre-dawn accident.
“‘It’s very likely that (surviving travelers) have left the scene.’
“Migrants often jump aboard La Bestia under cover of darkness. At times, several hundred migrants have been found on the train, either in freight cars or sitting on top.
“Mexico’s foreign ministry lamented the accident and said it was helping Central American embassies whose citizens were affected by the crash.
Post time: Feb-04-2017