Nine people were killed and a presidential candidate was briefly taken to hospital after a stage collapsed under heavy winds at a campaign rally in Mexico on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Candidate Jorge \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez said he was not injured in the incident, which happened during his campaign event in the northeastern city of San Pedro Garza Garc\u00eda. <\/p>\n
The governor of Mexico\u2019s Nuevo Leon state said at least 121 people were injured and has offered to pay for funeral and hospital costs for the victims. Among the dead is one minor, Governor Samuel Garc\u00eda Sep\u00falveda said in a post on X, adding that some of the injured are stable while others are undergoing surgery. <\/p>\n
\u201dWhat we experienced happened in just a few seconds: A gale came, a sudden wind, and unfortunately, it collapsed the stage, resulting in a fatal accident,\u201d \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez told Reuters. <\/p>\n
\u201cI first saw the musicians\u2019 drums, from the group that was going to play, were going to get blown away. When the others noticed, they ran in different directions; some jumped to the sides (of the stage), and I jumped back.\u201d <\/p>\n
Videos shared on social media showed the moment a strong gust caused the stage to collapse. \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez and his team can be seen running for cover as the structure, which included a large video screen, falls onto the stage and part of the audience area. <\/p>\n
Footage taken in the aftermath of the accident shows a large number of emergency vehicles at the scene, their lights flashing in the darkness, as injured people are carried away. The area was cordoned off and guarded by heavily armed security personnel. <\/p>\n
Nearby observations from Monterrey show there were thunderstorms that brought gusty winds to at least 40 to 50 kilometers (around 25 to 30 miles per hour). The stage location was likely impacted by a gust front, which is when gusty winds suddenly pick up and change direction from nearby thunderstorms. <\/p>\n
\u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez later said he was suspending all campaign activities after the collapse but would remain in the state to monitor the situation and victims. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez said. <\/p>\n
The 38-year old congressman is representing the center-left Citizens\u2019 Movement party, and was named party candidate in January after Garc\u00eda Sep\u00falveda dropped out. Garc\u00eda Sep\u00falveda was forced to return to his duties as governor as political chaos erupted under his interim replacement, making his presidential campaign untenable. <\/p>\n
During his daily press conference, Mexico\u2019s President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador sent condolences to the victims\u2019 families and expressed his support for Citizens\u2019 Movement. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that they are not to blame,\u201d he said, calling for authorities to investigate. <\/p>\n
Mexico is heading toward its largest election in history on June 2, which has been marred by spiking political violence and assassinations. <\/p>\n
The presidential vote is seen as a two-horse race between a former Mexico City mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of the Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, and a former senator Xochitl G\u00e1lvez who is representing the opposition coalition. <\/p>\n
With the two women far ahead in the polls, Mexico is almost certainly going to elect its first female president in June. <\/p>\n
An estimated 70,000 candidates have stepped forward to compete for more than 20,000 positions, including the national presidency and the governorships of nine states. <\/p>\n
So far this year, at least 28 candidates have been attacked, with 16 killed, according to data through April 1 from the research group Data C\u00edvica, a figure set to outpace even the bloodiest election cycles in Mexico\u2019s past. <\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters, \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez said Civil Defense teams had checked the \u201cstructure of the set\u201d prior to the event but that the severity of the wind gusts had caught organizers by surprise. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe weather conditions were very atypical: the rain didn\u2019t last for even five minutes \u2026 it wasn\u2019t even a storm, it was truly atypical what happened,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The presidential candidate said an investigation into the incident would take place. <\/p>\n
Governor Garc\u00eda Sep\u00falveda urged people in the area to stay indoors, warning of more strong winds, thunderstorms and rain. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Nine people were killed and a presidential candidate was briefly taken to hospital after a stage collapsed under heavy winds at a campaign rally in Mexico on Wednesday. Candidate Jorge \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez said he was not injured in the incident, which happened during his campaign event in the northeastern city of San Pedro Garza Garc\u00eda. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}