No fewer than nine people have been reportedly killed and 40 more injured after the roof of a church came crashing down in Mexico on Sunday.
Local officials say they are desperately looking for another 30 people believed to be trapped under the rubble in the disaster that struck at northeastern coastal town of Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas State, according to Reuters.
While working under floodlights, military personnel supported emergency services using rescue dogs and earth-moving equipment to identify and dig out survivors from the ruins of the church in Ciudad Madero, a city on the Gulf coast near the port of Tampico.
Reuters reports that footage on social media showed the moment the church roof caved in, puffs of gray smoke billowing into the air, followed by the toppling of yellow brick outer walls.
A Red Cross rescuer told local media that 80 people had been in attendance at the Santa Cruz parish when the roof caved in.
“Regrettably, 9 deaths and 40 injured are reported,” the state’s security spokesperson said in a post on social media platform X, adding that rescue work was continuing.
Local media reported that at least 20 people were missing under the rubble and that baptism was being celebrated when the ceiling collapsed.
“We are experiencing a very difficult moment… the roof of a church has collapsed during the celebration of the Eucharist,” the bishop of the local diocese Jose Armando Alvarez said in a video posted to social media.
“At this moment they are doing the necessary work to save the people who are still under the rubble,” he added, without providing more details.
The Red Cross rescuer told Milenio television that the death toll was likely to rise.
Several ambulances, patrol cars, and police and military personnel were at the site, in addition to numerous people in search of family members who were in the church.
