At least 20 people were killed and 71 others injured on Friday when a
pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico
as dozens of people tried to fill up containers.
Mexican television footage showed flames leaping into the night sky
in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico
City, as people shouted and cried for help.
“The preliminary report I’ve been passed is very serious, they’re
telling me 20 people have died, charred. I urge the entire population
not to be complicit in fuel theft. Apart from being illegal, it puts
your life and those of your families at risk” Hidalgo’s Governor Omar
Fayad said. Images published on broadcaster Televisa showed people with
severe burns from the blast as the government sent in ambulances and
doctors to treat the victims.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched a major
crackdown on rampant fuel theft, which the government said cost the
country more than $3 billion last year. Governor Fayad said there were
71 people injured in the blast, one of the worst in recent history in a
country that has suffered hundreds of illegal ruptures to its network of
oil and gas pipelines.
The ruptured pipeline was near the Tula refinery of state oil firm
Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which in a statement blamed the incident on
an illegal tap. Separate television footage showed the pipeline gushing
a fountain of fuel earlier in the day and dozens of people at the site
trying to fill buckets and plastic containers.