16 patients die in flood-hit Mexican hospital

At least 16 patients died after flooding hit a hospital in central Mexico, disrupting the power supply and oxygen therapy, authorities said Tuesday.

The facility in the town of Tula in Hidalgo state was inundated after a river overflowed following heavy rain, the government said on Twitter.

The rest of the patients were evacuated and taken to other hospitals, it said.

The hospital was flooded in a matter of minutes and a power cut disrupted oxygen treatment, said Zoe Robledo, general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security, which operates the facility.

Forty of the 56 patients survived, he said.

According to Mexican media, the victims included Covid-19 patients who needed oxygen therapy to stay alive.

Images showed medical personnel pushing patients' stretchers through the water.

The government deployed the military as well as water and electricity board workers to deal with the fallout in Tula, which bore the brunt of heavy rains that have drenched swaths of Mexico.

Two more people died in Ecatepec, a suburb of Mexico City where flooding turned streets into rivers, officials said.