Nine people were killed and at least 50 others injured when a stage structure collapsed at a campaign event for the Mexican presidential candidate Jorge Álvarez Máynez, local officials have said.
Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said a gust of wind caused the accident in the city of San Pedro Garza García in the northern state of Nuevo León.
Máynez said he went to hospital briefly after part of the stage that he was addressing supporters from collapsed. The director of Mexico’s social security institute reported that dozens of people were being treated at local clinics.
Máynez said: “I am fine and in communication with state authorities to follow up on what happened. The only important thing right now is to care for the victims of the accident,” adding that he had suspended election campaign activities.
Video of the accident posted on social media showed Máynez waving his arms as the crowd chanted his name, before looking up to see a giant screen and metal structure toppling towards him. The presidential candidate ran for safety as part of the stage toppled over.
Miguel Treviño, the mayor of San Pedro Garza García, said: “There are people reported trapped and injured. My prayers are with the victims.”
Máynez, a 38-year-old former state legislator from the centrist Citizen Movement party, is running a distant third less than two weeks before voters go to the polls on 2 June.
The former Mexico City head of government Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez, an ex-mayor for the city’s Miguel Hidalgo borough, are the two leading candidates. On Wednesday evening, Sheinbaum said she hoped “everything is well with the candidates and attendees” at the rally.
With Reuters and the Associated Press
