Mexico explosion death toll at 74

MEXICO CITY: At least 74 people have been killed in Friday’s fuel pipeline explosion in Mexico’s central state of Hidalgo, said governor Omar Fayad.

More bodies had been recovered at the scene as the cleaning work went on and others who had suffered critical injuries in the explosion died in different hospitals, said Fayad.

Twenty-four people are being treated in hospitals in Hidalgo and another 50 are in hospitals in Mexico City, the States of Mexico, Queretaro and Guanajuato.

“The expectation of finding more people alive is practically disappearing,” Fayad said.

The Mexican Attorney-General, Alejandro Gertz, told reporters that investigators were looking into the possibility that the static electricity from the synthetic clothing of people around the pipeline may have detonated the blast, since the gasoline was loaded with a series of highly flammable gases. He added that no suspects had been detained.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has launched a major crackdown on increasing fuel theft in the country, said the incident would not stop the fight against fuel theft and “there will be no complicity of the federal government for these crimes”.

The Tuxpan-Tula pipeline of the state-owned petroleum company Pemex runs from the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico to the Tula refinery, near the site of the incident.

The explosion and ensuing blaze occurred at a pipeline spot in the community of San Primitivo, Tlahuelilpan at about 7pm on Friday.

According to the local government, between 600 and 800 people had gathered at the site to collect leaking fuel with containers when the explosion took place.

Authorities said the pipeline leakage was illegally tapped by fuel thieves – a regular problem for the Pemex pipelines, and one that cost the country some $3billion (R41.6billion) last year.

Fuel theft is a chronic problem in Mexico.

Last year, an attempt was made to illegally tap into a fuel line every 30 minutes.

The expectation of finding more people alive is practically disappearing

AP A FORENSIC expert takes pictures of a burned body at the site of an oil pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico, at the weekend. A massive fireball engulfed people scooping up fuel spilling from a ruptured pipeline, killing 74 people and badly burning others. | Claudio Cruz | Xinhua