Mexico’s president confirmed Wednesday that the collapse of the stage at a political campaign rally killed four people and injured at least 15.
The collapse was caused by an incredibly strong gust of wind that wreaked havoc during an event in northern Mexico attended by, among others, presidential candidate Jorge Álvarez Máynez, who was also blown away.
The current Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said he sends ‘a hug to family members, friends of the victims and political supporters.’
Horrifying videos of the collapse filled social media on Wednesday night.
Videos on social media show the moment the stage collapsed before the large crowd on Wednesday night.
They showed the terrified crowd screaming and trying to flee the collapsing stage infrastructure.
Other videos showed people trying to get out from under metal poles that had fallen on the large crowd.
On his social media accounts, Máynez published that he was taken to a nearby hospital after the accident that occurred at the campaign rally.
He said he was fine, but that there were “victims” of the accident.
The demonstration was taking place in the affluent suburb of San Pedro Garza García, just outside the city of Monterrey.
“The only important thing right now is to take care of the victims of the accident,” he wrote.
The videos appear to show Máynez waving to the crowd as they chant his name before realizing that a giant screen is about to fall on top of him.
He quickly runs to the back of the stage in an effort to avoid being crushed by the falling structure.
The governor of the northern border state of Nuevo León, a leading supporter of Máynez’s Citizen Movement party, said in a video speech that people were injured.
The mayor of San Pedro Garza García, Miguel Treviño, confirmed that there would be people ‘trapped and injured’.
“My prayers are with the victims,” he added.
Security forces surround a stage that collapsed due to a gust of wind during a political rally in northern Mexico on Wednesday night.
A Mexican Red Cross rescuer checks on a girl at the scene after a gust of wind caused a structure to collapse at a campaign rally.
The president of the Citizen Movement party, Jorge Álvarez Maynez, reacts at the scene after a gust of wind caused the collapse of a structure, causing multiple deaths and injuries, at a campaign event of the Citizen Movement party, in San Pedro Garza García .
Events like the one that was disrupted tonight are taking place across the country this week ahead of the presidential election scheduled for June 2, which will also include state and municipal elections.
Events like the one that was disrupted tonight are taking place across the country this week ahead of the presidential election scheduled for June 2, which will also include state and municipal elections.
The run-up to the election included a significant amount of political violence, including the assassinations of around two dozen candidates for various local offices.
The collapse of the stage is, however, the first accident of its kind to affect the electoral campaign.
Álvarez Máynez has been behind the two favorites in the presidential race.
The favorite candidate for the next elections is Claudia Sheinbaum of the ruling Morerna Party, and behind her is the candidate of the opposition coalition Xóchitl Gálvez.
