9 Killed In Mexico As Stage Collapses At Election Rally
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MONTERREY (Worthy News) – Rescue operations were ongoing Thursday in northern Mexico after a stage collapsed under strong wind at an election rally, killing at least nine people, including a child, and injuring scores of others, officials said.
Presidential hopeful Jorge Álvarez Máynez stressed he felt “okay” following a short visit to the hospital after the accident in San Pedro Garza García, a suburb of Monterrey in Mexico’s state of Nuevo León.
The accident happened while the progressive candidate and other members of his Citizens’ Movement party attended the campaign event, according to witnesses.
The collapse was caused by “strong wind,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico confirmed on social media.
Video footage showed that the wind picked up suddenly as candidates were chanting campaign slogans onstage.
As the stage lighting truss slammed to the ground, people could be seen rushing off the stage to avoid getting crushed. Others in the crowd ran away screaming, some holding one another in the intense wind.
RESCUE OPERATIONS
The governor of Mexico’s Nuevo Leon state said at least 54 people were injured, and rescue operations were underway to save some of the people trapped under the collapsed stage.
Questions were due about the decision to go ahead with the campaign event. Mexico’s meteorological service had forecast powerful winds across the region, warning of gusts of up to 70 kilometers per hour (43 miles per hour) beginning Wednesday afternoon.
Álvarez Máynez later said he suspended all campaign activities after the collapse but would remain in the state to monitor the situation and victims.
“We have to have solidarity; there is nothing that can repair an accident, a damage of this nature, and [people] will not be alone in this tragedy and through the consequences that this tragedy will have in their lives,” Álvarez Máynez stressed.
Mexico’s president expressed his support for all involved. It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents surrounding this year’s election campaigns in Mexico.
More than ten political candidates have reportedly already been murdered in the run-up to the presidential, parliamentary, and regional elections on June 2.
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