MEXICO CITY, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Mexicans on Wednesday continued to mourn the mounting death toll from the country's deadliest subway accident in nearly 50 years.

So far, 25 people have died as a result of the incident. Late Monday night, two carriages of Mexico City's Line 12 subway plummeted onto the ground after the overpass it was passing over collapsed in the southeast of the capital.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador decreed three days of national mourning from May 4 to May 6, with flags lowered at half-mast.

"The federal government expresses its solidarity and deep pain for the deceased and injured people, as well as their families," according to the decree.

The tragedy occurred between the Olivos and Tezonco stations in the city's Tlahuac district. Observers and media outlets have highlighted how nearby residents came out in droves to help passengers out of the fallen subway and aided firefighters, paramedics, soldiers and police officers, as they tried to cut through buckled metal and broken concrete.

One eyewitness said that shortly after the noise of falling structures died down, they could hear people calling for help, so that "rescuers came to aid those they could."

According to the authorities, 21 of the fatal victims died at the scene and four in hospitals. Another 79 people were injured and taken to different hospitals.

Remigio Galloso Rosales, 42, is one of them. He is a doctor at Balbuena Hospital. He said he required an operation for wounds and serious fractures in his right foot and arm.

Brenda Gonzalez Galloso, the victim's niece, said her uncle was returning home from work when the crash occurred.

"We are concerned because we do not know what will happen and who is going to pay the expenses for all this, because we don't have money and my uncle also has two little ones to support," said Gonzalez.

This is the second-deadliest accident in the history of Mexico City's Metro system, only after a train collision on Line 2 on Oct. 20, 1975, which left 31 people dead and 79 more injured.

Investigators have interviewed victims at various hospitals to get their firsthand accounts of the accident and officials have invited foreign agencies to help determine what went wrong. Local authorities have also promised a thorough investigation into the accident.

Line 12, which runs through Tlahuac, one of the capital's most populous boroughs, is 25.1 kilometers long and has 20 stations, eight of them underground.

The line was inaugurated in 2012, but two years later it suspended service at 11 of its 20 stations after structural problems were detected. The repairs took two years. After the 2017 Puebla earthquake, repairs were made again to the subway line. Enditem

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