2 Dead in Hot Air Balloon Accident Outside of Mexico City

A hot-air balloon pilot pilots a hot-air balloon over Johannesburg, South Africa, May 15, 2022. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
A hot-air balloon pilot pilots a hot-air balloon over Johannesburg, South Africa, May 15, 2022. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
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2 Dead in Hot Air Balloon Accident Outside of Mexico City

A hot-air balloon pilot pilots a hot-air balloon over Johannesburg, South Africa, May 15, 2022. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
A hot-air balloon pilot pilots a hot-air balloon over Johannesburg, South Africa, May 15, 2022. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

Two people died and a girl was injured after the hot air balloon they were riding in caught fire near Mexico City, authorities said Saturday.

Officials in the state of Mexico, which borders the capital, said the girl suffered burns and a broken arm, The Associated Press reported.

According to a video of the incident posted on social media, the occupants of the balloon appeared to have fallen or jumped from the craft.

The dead were listed as a male, 50, and a woman, 38.

The accident occurred near the pre-Hispanic ruin site of Teotihuacan, just north of Mexico City. The area is a popular location for balloon rides.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

Teotihuacan, best known for its twin Temples of the Sun and Moon, was once a large city that housed over 100,000 inhabitants and covered around 8 square miles (20 square kilometers).

The still-mysterious city was one of the largest in the world at its apex between 100 B.C. and A.D. 750. But it was abandoned before the rise of the Aztecs in the 14th century.



Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
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Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

With politics set aside, well-wishers gathered to wish the Taipei zoo’s senior panda a happy 20th birthday.
Visitors crowded around Yuanyuan's enclosure to take photos of her with a birthday cake in the shape of the number 20.
Yuanyuan was born in China and arrived in 2008 with her partner Tuantuan. He died in 2022 at age 18 but not before fathering two female cubs, Yuanzai and Yuanbao, now 11 and 4 respectively and still living at the zoo.
Danielle Shu, a 20-year-old Brazilian student in Taiwan, said she found online clips of the pandas an enjoyable distraction. “And I just find it really funny and cute,” The Associated Press quoted Shu as saying.
Giant pandas are native only to China, and Beijing bestows them as a sign of political amity. Yuanyuan and Tuantuan arrived in Taiwan during a period of relative calm between the sides, which split amid civil war in 1949. China claims the island its own territory, to be annexed by military force if necessary.
Faced with declining habitat and a notoriously low birthrate, giant panda populations have declined to around 1,900 in the mountains of western China, while 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers in China and around the world.