After a surge of migrants hitching rides on freight trains, a company operating some of Mexico’s railways has suspended 60 of its routes.

In order to prevent accidents or fatalities, Ferromex will suspend train services toward Mexico’s border with the US.

According to the company, the number of migrants trying to hitch rides on its freight trains was unprecedented.

A huge number of people climb up onto the roofs and cling to the sides of buildings every year.

In a statement published [in Spanish] on Tuesday, Grupo México, which owns Ferromex, said there have been “half a dozen cases of injuries or deaths.”

In order to speed up the 3,000km-journey (1,860 miles) from Mexico’s southern border to its northern border, migrants risk jumping on board the freight trains known as La Bestia (The Beast).

Because most wagons are loaded with freight, they usually ride on the train’s roof or hang from its sides.

It is possible for them to lose limbs and their lives if they fall. A number of gangs target trains to rob, rape, and extort migrants.

At Torreón, where freight services depart for a number of Mexican cities on the US border, Ferromex reported more than 1,500 people gathered on top of a train and inside a train depot.

There were hundreds more gathered at other key points of the railroad, with more than 1,000 on wagon roofs between Chihuahua and Ciudad Juárez.

Ferromex said families with children boarding their freight trains were among the passengers.

Ferromex’s statement follows warnings from international organisations regarding the growing number of children traveling through Mexico to reach the US.