Mexico crash: 53 killed as truck smuggling migrants overturns, officials say

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico — At least 53 people are dead and 54 hurt after a cargo truck filled with migrants overturned and crashed in southern Mexico, authorities said.

>> PHOTOS: Mexico truck crash leaves dozens of migrants dead

According to The Associated Press, the rollover crash occurred Thursday in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas state. As many as 200 migrants were believed to be in the trailer when it flipped and struck the bottom of a pedestrian bridge, the AP reported.

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One of the survivors, Celso Pacheco of Guatemala, said most of the migrants were from Guatemala and Honduras, according to the AP. About eight to 10 young children were aboard the truck, he said.

Survivors told authorities that they boarded the truck in Mexico, near the Guatemalan border, and paid from $2,500 to $3,500 to be taken to Mexico’s Puebla state, the AP reported. They then expected to meet up with another set of smugglers, who would transport them to the U.S. border, the migrants said.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed his condolences on social media.

“I deeply regret the tragedy caused by the overturning of a trailer in Chiapas carrying Central American migrants,” he tweeted in Spanish. “It is very painful. I embrace the families of the victims.”

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei tweeted a similar statement.

“I deeply regret the tragedy in Chiapas state, and I express my solidarity for the victims’ families, to whom we will offer all the necessary consular assistance, including repatriation,” he wrote in Spanish.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Photos: Mexico truck crash leaves dozens of migrants dead A truck that was transporting migrants is seen rolled over after a traffic accident that killed migrants from Central America on December 9, 2021, in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico. (Alfredo Pacheco/Getty Images)

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