At Least Nine Dead After Mexico Church Roof Collapse

At least nine people have been killed and another 50 injured in a church roof collapse during a mass service in Mexico.

Around 100 people were in the church for the service on Sunday, when the roof caved in and trapped many of them.

A ‘structural failure’ is being blamed for the incident at the Santa Cruz church, which is located in the Gulf coast city of Ciudad Madero, which is in the north of Mexico.

Search begins to rescue those trapped in Mexico church

Whilst at least nine people have already been confirmed killed by the collapse, and another 50 people are said to be injured, there are still some trapped under the rubble.

A search has begun to crawl through the wreckage, hoping to rescue those trapped inside, with Bishop José Armando Alvarez of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tampico saying as quoted by The Guardian:

“At this time, the necessary work is being performed to extract the people who are still under the rubble.

“Today we are living through a very difficult moment.”

Alvarez also called on anyone who had wood or similar materials to donate to bring them to the church, likely in a bid to shore up the roof while rescue teams crawled inside and looked for further survivors.

Cause of Mexico church collapse sought

Whilst a ‘structural failure’ is being blamed for the collapse, the trigger for it is still being looked for.

Some wondered whether an earthquake had been the cause of the issue, but The National Seismological Service did not report any seismic activity strong enough to cause this level of damage at the time of the collapse. There was also no immediate indication of an explosion at the site.

In previous similar instances where an earthquake had been the cause, rescue dogs had been used to try and find survivors by weaving through the rubble and dragging them to safety, though those that were brought in here did not initially appear to detect signs of life and survivors.

This said, the rescue team have sought to use people to go into the rubble and shout out, before listening to see if they could get any response from anyone still trapped and alive.

There were also early efforts to lift off parts of the collapsed roof with a crane. But those were abandoned because of the danger that a chunk of slab might fall back into the wreckage and endanger any remaining survivors.