AT least 54 people have died after 200 migrants crammed into a lorry before it overturned and smashed into a bridge.

       Dozens of men, women and children have also been injured in the horror crash in southern Mexico as the overloaded truck reportedly flipped on a sharp bend.

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       At least 54 people have died after a truck carrying migrants crashed 5

       Most of the victims are believed to be from Central America

       Thousands of migrants from Central America are desperately trying to flee their poverty-stricken lives by attempting to reach the US through Mexico.

       It's not been confirmed where the lorry crash victims are from, but according to local officials most of the people on board were from Honduras and Guatemala.

       Rescue workers rushed to the highway and discovered a horrific scene after the truck jammed with as many as 200 migrants tipped over and crashed into the base steel of a pedestrian bridge on a main road.

       At least 54 have died - one of the worst single-day death tolls for migrants in Mexico since the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants by the Zetas drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

       Volunteer rescuers hauled bodies off the pile by their arms and legs, while some migrants scrambled and limped to get themselves out of the twisted steel sheets of the collapsed container.

       Many were severely injured, and were carried by their arms and legs to plastic sheets set out on the road as ambulances and pickup trucks rushed to ferry people to hospital.

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       Later, the dead were laid in rows of white sheets, side by side, on the highway.

       Rescue workers who first arrived said that even more migrants had been aboard the truck when it crashed and had fled for fear of being detained by immigration agents.

       One paramedic said some of those who hurried into surrounding neighborhoods were bloodied or bruised, but still limped away in their desperation to escape.

       About 200 migrants may have been packed into the truck, said Guatemalas top human rights official, Jordan Rodas.

       While shocking, that number is not unusual for migrant smuggling operations in Mexico, and the sheer weight of the load combined with speed and a nearby curve may have been enough to throw the truck off balance, authorities said.

       Luis Manuel Moreno, head of the Chiapas state civil defense office, said about 21 of the injured had serious wounds and were taken to local hospitals.

       The federal Attorney Generals Office said three were critically injured in the crash on a highway leading from the Guatemalan border toward the Chiapas state capital.

       Sitting on the pavement beside the overturned trailer, survivor Celso Pacheco of Guatemala said the truck felt like it was speeding and then seemed to lose control under the weight of the migrants inside.

       BORDER CHAOS

       Pacheco said there were migrants mostly from Guatemala and Honduras aboard and estimated there were eight to 10 young children. He said he was trying to reach the United States, but now expected to be deported to Guatemala.

       Marco Antonio Sanchez, director of the Chiapas Firefighter Institute, said ambulances raced victims to three hospitals, carrying three to four injured each.

       When there weren't enough ambulances they loaded them into pickup trucks, he said.

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       Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei wrote on Twitter: "I deeply regret the tragedy in Chiapas state, and I express my solidarity for the victims families, to whom we will offer all the necessary consular assistance, including repatriation."

       The truck had originally been a closed freight module used to transport perishable goods.

       During the crash, the container was smashed open by the force of the impact. It was unclear if the driver survived.

       Those who spoke to survivors said the migrants told of boarding the truck in Mexico, near the border with Guatemala. They reportedly paid between $2,500 (￡1,900) and $3,500 (￡2,600) to be transported to Mexico's central state of Puebla.

       In recent months, Mexican authorities have tried to block migrants from walking in large groups toward the US border, but the clandestine and illicit flow of migrant smuggling has continued.

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       Dozens were injured in the horror smash 5

       The truck flipped and smashed into a bridge in Mexico 5

       The container was smashed open by the force of the impact