Nine people were killed and at least 50 injured when a stage collapsed during Mexican presidential candidate Jorge Álvarez Maínez’s campaign campaign, local authorities said.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the accident in the city of San Pedro Garza García in the northern state of Nuevo Leon was caused by gusty winds.
Minez said he collapsed midway through a speech to supporters and was briefly hospitalized, while the head of Mexico’s social security agency reported that dozens of people were being treated at local clinics.
“I’m fine and in contact with state authorities to follow up on what happened. The only important thing right now is to take care of the victims of the accident,” Mynes said, temporarily suspending his campaign. It added that it had stopped.
Footage of the accident posted on social media shows Mines waving his arms as spectators chanted his name, then looking up to see a giant screen and metal structure falling towards him. was. Part of the stage collapsed, causing presidential candidates to run for safety.
San Pedro Garza García Mayor Miguel Treviño said: “There are reports of people trapped and injured. My prayers are with the victims.”
Mynes, a 38-year-old former state legislator with the centrist Civic Movement party, is in a distant third place with less than two weeks to go until the June 2 election.
The two leading candidates are Claudia Sheinbaum, former prime minister of Mexico City, and Xochitl Gálvez, former mayor of the city’s Miguel Hidalgo district. “I hope all is well with the candidates and attendees,” Sheinbaum said at a rally Wednesday night.
In partnership with Reuters and Associated Press
