At least 13 people have died and 98 others were injured after a train derailed in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Sunday, the Mexican Navy confirmed. The train was carrying around 250 passengers at the time of the accident.
The derailment occurred in Asunción Ixtaltepec, along the main rail line connecting Veracruz and Salina Cruz. The navy said in a statement that “36 people required hospital care and the rest sustained minor injuries.”
Hundreds of naval personnel and rescue vehicles have been deployed to assist at the scene.
An investigation will be opened to determine the cause of the derailment, Mexico’s Attorney General Ernestina Godoy said in a post on X.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum also addressed the incident, writing on X that she has “instructed the Secretary of the Navy and Interior Ministry’s Undersecretary for Human Rights to travel to the site and personally attend to the families.”
Managed by Mexico’s Navy, the Interoceanic Train links Mexico’s Pacific and Gulf coasts. Its main line only came into service in 2023, under a program by then-Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to promote economic development in southern Mexico and create “an alternative to the Panama Canal for cargo transport.”
