OAN’s James Meyers
1:30 PM – Monday, October 2, 2023
The collapse of a church roof in northern Mexico has left at least 10 people dead and reportedly injured over 60 people.
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According to state police, they estimated that almost 100 people were inside of the church in Ciudad Madero, Mexico, when it collapsed during a baptism on Sunday.
The National Guard, state police, state civil defense crews, and the Red Cross arrived at the incident in order to provide aid and assistance, according to Tamaulipas state police.
“At this time, the necessary work is being performed to extract the people who are still under the ruble,” Bishop Jose Armando Alvarez of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tampico said in a taped message. “Today we are living through a very difficult moment.”
Alvarez posted a list of almost 50 people who had been hospitalized due to the collapsing roof. The list included a 4-month-old infant, three 5-year-olds, and two 9-year-olds.
“We lament the painful loss of people who were there celebrating the baptism of their children,” Alvarez wrote.
However, Alvarez did express that there were signs of hope.
“From underneath the rubble, thanks to Divine Providence and the work of the rescue teams, people have been pulled out alive!” Alvarez’s diocese wrote in a statement posted on its social media accounts. “Let’s keep praying!”
Additionally, the Bishop asked local residents who had wood to donate to the place of worship to help repair the roof while rescue teams were inside rescuing as many victims as possible.
Constitutional Governor of the State of Tamaulipas, Americo Villarreal, reported that after dispatching search dogs and thermal imaging cameras, nobody seemed to still be trapped in the rubble.
“The most likely thing, I can’t affirm it 100%, is that there aren’t any more people trapped,” Villarreal said. Describing the searches by dogs and rescue teams, he said “there are no indications of life inside the collapsed area.”
The state security spokesman’s office said that the church appeared to be “a structural failure.”
However, Governor Villareal did not mention any problems that had been previously reported regarding the church’s structure.
“It was over 50 years old, it was here functioning and operating with no problem, with no sign of any defect,” Villarreal maintained.
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