Mexico migrant cargo train 'La Bestia' derails, at least six dead
Soldiers stand near the overturned wagons of a derailed train in Huamanguillo, in this August 25, 2013 handout photo provided by Diario Presencia. REUTERS/Diario Presencia/Handout via Reuters
MEXICO CITY | Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:58pm BST
(Reuters) - At least six people were killed when a cargo train nicknamed "La Bestia," or "The Beast," on which would-be migrants hitch rides toward the U.S. border, derailed in a remote area of southern Mexico on Sunday, state officials said.
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 travellers) have left the scene."
A spokesman for Tabasco state government said the death toll had risen to six, with 22 injured. He said 16 people were being treated in hospitals in nearby Choapas, Veracruz.
There were different reports of numbers injured. Luis Felipe Puente, national emergency service coordinator, said on Twitter that 35 people were injured, 16 seriously.
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.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Tomas Sarmiento; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Christopher Wilson)
