Two people died of asphyxiation during mass celebrations in central Mexico City after the national team’s World Cup victory over Ecuador, according to the city’s health ministry. The fatalities were confirmed in the early hours of Wednesday, as huge crowds gathered around the Angel of Independence monument on Paseo de la Reforma.

The victims were identified by relatives as a 44-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman. Emergency services found them unconscious at the intersection of Hamburgo and Lancaster streets, a focal point for the festivities. Paramedics, firefighters and civil protection personnel performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation before transferring them to hospital, but they could not be saved. Mexican media reports, citing preliminary accounts, describe a sudden stampede triggered by fireworks around 11:40 p.m. local time, which caused people to fall and be trampled on wet, debris-strewn pavement.

A discrepancy over the death toll emerged later in the day. The health ministry’s command post initially reported only the two confirmed deaths. However, one Mexican news outlet, Aristegui Noticias, later cited the same command post as confirming a third fatality: a 48-year-old woman found unconscious on a nearby street and declared dead from asphyxiation after hospital treatment. International wire services noted that authorities had not officially confirmed a third death, and several local media organisations continued to report only two victims.

More than a million people took to the streets of the capital, according to city government estimates, after Mexico beat Ecuador 2–0 to reach the round of 16 — the team’s first victory in a World Cup knockout match since 1986. Mayor Clara Brugada expressed condolences and said emergency teams had done everything possible. Thousands of police and medical personnel had been deployed in advance. The city government said an investigation was under way to establish the precise circumstances of the crush.