{"id":528203,"date":"2026-07-01T20:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/528203\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T20:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:50:14","slug":"four-people-die-in-mexico-city-during-celebrations-after-world-cup-victory-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/528203\/","title":{"rendered":"Four people die in Mexico City during celebrations after World Cup victory \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four people died, three of asphyxiation, during late night street celebrations in Mexico City after \u200bhundreds of thousands of fans gathered along the capital\u2019s main central avenue as Mexico beat Ecuador to win their first World Cup<\/a> knock-out match in 40 years.<\/p>\n

Mexico City\u2019s department of health said in the early hours of Wednesday that emergency teams had tended to three unconscious people at different locations around Paseo de la Reforma, the \u200bemblematic boulevard along which giant screens had been set up showing the match.<\/p>\n

A 19-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man received advanced resuscitation efforts but died of suffocation, the \u2060health authority said. A third person, a 48-year-old woman, later died in hospital also of asphyxiation. Authorities later reported a fourth \u200cfatality, \u200ca \u200bman in his 30s who was taken to hospital suffering from severe seizures and gastrointestinal bleeding. He died after a cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

The tragedy occurred after crowds had continued to grow with each Mexican victory \u2060as the team progressed through the tournament the soccer-mad country \u200bis hosting for the first time since 1986, this year jointly \u200bwith the US and Canada. <\/p>\n

Mexico City had in recent weeks banned alcohol sales on Mexico match days as well as increased the number \u200cof screens, and the space between them, in \u200ban attempt to improve safety. On Tuesday, more than 2 kilometers of Paseo de la Reforma were closed to traffic and dotted \u2060with giant screens showing the match. The city government \u2060said around a million people had \u200bgathered in the capital.<\/p>\n

Local newspaper El Universal reported that the deadly crowd crush had been triggered by pyrotechnics which had caused panic, with people starting to run and some falling and being trampled.<\/p>\n

Patricia Garcia, a 54-year-old housewife, told Reuters amid the crowds in the early hours of Wednesday morning that she was delighted by the Mexican victory but that things were getting out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t agree with excessive celebrations. You can\u2019t let it affect others. Freedom has its limits, and those limits are where another person\u2019s freedom begins,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Videos shared on social media showed \u200cchaotic scenes. One clip which \u2060appeared to be recorded near the iconic Angel monument on Paseo de la Reforma showed people trapped and unable to move as the momentum of a dense crowd pushed and swayed. Other clips showed groups of fans punching and \u200ckicking each other near the same site, slipping to the ground covered in cans, bottles, foam and spilled alcohol.<\/p>\n

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the attorney general\u2019s office would investigate \u200bwhat went wrong and authorities would evaluate whether changes needed to be made ahead of Mexico\u2019s \u200blast-16 match against England on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to celebrate responsibly,\u201d she said during her regular morning press conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four people died, three of asphyxiation, during late night street celebrations in Mexico City after \u200bhundreds of thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2956,61,60,2628,112,4018],"class_list":["post-528203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mexico","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}