Mexico pipeline explosion toll rises to 79

MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s health minister said on Sunday that the number of people killed in a gasoline pipeline explosion has risen to 79.

Another 66 people remained hospitalised; Jorge Alcocer told a press conference. The blast occurred on Friday when up to 800 people flocked to collect gasoline at the Tula-Tuxpan pipeline that had been punctured by fuel thieves, officials said.

The blast occurred near Tlahuelilpan, a town of 20,000 people about an hour’s drive north of Mexico City. As soldiers guarded the devastated, still-smoking scene, forensic specialists in white suits worked among the blackened corpses — many frozen in the unnatural positions in which they had fallen — and grim-eyed civilians stepped cautiously along in a desperate search for missing relatives. The pungent smell of fuel hung in the air. Fragments of burnt clothing were strewn through the charred brush.

When the forensic workers began attempting to load corpses into vans to be transported to funeral homes, some 30 villagers tried to stop them. They demanded their relatives´ bodies, saying funeral homes were too expensive. The bodies were ultimately taken to a morgue, authorities said.

On Friday, when authorities heard that fuel traffickers had punctured the pipeline, an army unit of about 25 soldiers arrived and attempted to block off the area, Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval told reporters. But the soldiers were unable to contain the estimated 700 civilians — including entire families — who swarmed in to collect the spilled gasoline in jerrycans and buckets, witnesses said.