Mexico truck crash: At least 54 people killed in traffic collision as lorry trailer overturns hitting bridge

Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100 injured after the truck they were travelling in overturned in southern Mexico and collided with a bridge.

It is understood more than 150 people, migrants travelling from Central America, were in the trailer of the vehicle when it rolled over.

The incident took place in the Mexican state of Chiapas when the truck rolled over at a sharp bend and smashed into the underside of a bridge.

Images taken in the aftermath of the crash showed victims scattered across the surface of the road and near a pedestrian bridge with which the trailer collided.

The BBC reports the incident is one of the worst of its kind ever to hit Mexico.

Of the people killed, 49 died at the scene and a further five were pronounced dead in hospital according, to Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón.

It is understood a total of 105 people – 83 men and 22 women – sustained injuries in the collision.

Though the victims’ nationalities have not yet been confirmed, local officials suggest many were likely travelling from nearby Honduras and Guatemala. Chiapas is known as a crossing point for migrants travelling from further south in Central America.

Mexican national guard officers work in the area where a trucked rolled over after a traffic accident that killed people emigrating from Central America on December 9, 2021 in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico. (Photo by Alfredo Pacheco/Getty Images)

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has labelled the US-Mexico border – the likely destination for migrants entering Mexico at Chiapas – as the single deadliest crossing in the world.

Data suggests at least 650 people died trying to cross the border this year.

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the truck disaster is "very painful" for Mexico and tweeted that he "deeply regrets the tragedy".

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