Mexican firefighters guard the area where a gas truck exploded in Mexico City. Photo / Valentina Alpide, AFP
Mexican firefighters guard the area where a gas truck exploded in Mexico City. Photo / Valentina Alpide, AFP
Nearly 60 people were wounded, 19 gravely, when a gas truck exploded in Mexico City causing widespread damage, municipal officials said.
The vehicle blew up on a bridge in the populous Iztapalapa district in the capital’s east, leaving 19 people with second- and third-degree burns, civil protection official Myriam Urzuasaid.
No fatalities have been reported.
Images distributed on television and social networks show the moment of the powerful explosion.
People can be seen with what appear to be serious burns, while others near the disaster zone fled the fast-spreading flames that were later brought under control by firefighters.
Iztapalapa is home to 1.8 million of those – one of the most populated districts in the country.
Mexico is no stranger to disasters linked to fuel trucks and hydrocarbon infrastructure.
The worst occurred in January 2019, when a fire and subsequent explosion on a pipeline being looted killed 137 people in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the central state of Hidalgo.
