At least 53 people killed as trailer containing migrants overturns in Mexico

At least 53 people have been killed and dozens injured after the truck they were being transported in crashed in southern Mexico.

Over 100 people, said to be migrants from Central America, were in the truck’s trailer when it rolled and hit a bridge in the state of Chiapas.

The accident occurred Thursday afternoon, December 8, (Mexico time) on the road leading into Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas state

Pictures from the crash scene show victims across the road next to the overturned truck with rows of what appeared to be bodies covered in white sheets.

The truck was reportedly speeding when it flipped on a sharp bend and hit a pedestrian bridge on a main road leading to the Chiapas state capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

It is one of the worst accidents in Mexican history, with at least 58 people injured, some seriously, said Luis Manuel Garcia, head of the Chiapas civil protection agency.

Garcia says the victims included men, women and children. Their nationalities have not been confirmed, but local officials said most of the people in the trailer were migrants from Honduras and Guatemala.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the crash as “very painful” and wrote on Twitter that he “deeply regrets the tragedy”.

Chiapas, which neighbours Guatamala, is a major transit point for undocumented migrants.

Many of them pay smugglers, who illegally transport them in crowded and dangerous trucks on the long journey all in their bid to reach the US via Mexico .

The US-Mexico border is the deadliest single crossing in the world according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This year alone, at least 650 people have died at the border, while trying to cross it.