An explosion and fire in central Mexico killed at least 73 people after hundreds swarmed to the site of an illegal fuel-line tap to gather gasoline amid a government crackdown on fuel theft, officials said.
Photo: AFP Aerial view of the scene where a massive blaze trigerred by a leaky pipeline took place the night before in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico.
Hidalgo state governor Omar Fayad announced that the toll had increased to 73 after the discovery of five additional bodies.
The blast - which Fayad said injured 74 people - occurred near Tlahuelilpan, a town of 20,000 people about an hour's drive north of Mexico City.
As soldiers guarded the still-smoking scene, forensic specialists worked among the corpses and civilians stepped cautiously along in a desperate search for missing relatives.
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.
The armed soldiers had been moved away from the pipeline to avoid any risk of confrontation with the crowd when the blast occurred, some two hours after the pipeline was first breached, Sandoval said.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador traveled to the scene early Saturday.
He did not fault the soldiers, saying, "The attitude of the army was correct. It is not easy to impose order on a crowd."
He vowed to continue fighting the growing problem of fuel theft.
"I am deeply saddened by the suffering in Tlahuelilpan," Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter. He called on his "whole government" to extend assistance.
The tragedy comes during a highly publicized federal government war on fuel theft, a problem that cost Mexico an estimated $3 billion in 2017.
Mexico is regularly rocked by deadly explosions at illegal pipeline taps, a dangerous but lucrative business whose players include powerful drug cartels and corrupt Pemex insiders.
