An explosion caused by a leak in a clandestine intake of a gas pipeline of the Mexican state oil company Pemex this Sunday left at least
one dead, 15 injured in the state of Puebla, and some 2,000 people evacuated from nearby areas.
"It is regrettable that one person has lost his life so far, and 15 more have been injured, due to the explosion of a Pemex pipeline in Puebla," reported the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador on his social networks.
Five of the injured are seriously ill, three of them were intubated and six more are in delicate condition, federal authorities said.
Some resulted with 75% of the body burned.
Also, more than 50 buildings were damaged.
[Federal forces catch an army of huachicoleros with 40 pipes and in 4 buildings, in Puebla]
According to López Obrador, the events occurred at 2:30 in the morning, local time, and 1,396 officials from all civil protection corporations were mobilized to attend to the situation.
The president assured that the state oil company already "has control of the fire and will ensure that the families evicted from their homes remain safe."
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Local authorities explained at a press conference that the explosion was due to a clandestine gas intake in the San Pablo Xochimehuacán area, in the city of Puebla.
The detonation took place in a field where there was a tanker authorized to subtract about 10,000 liters of liquefied petroleum gas.
The governor of Puebla, Miguel Barbosa, assured that "the first to be implicated" are
the owner of the property and the owner of the tanker, and promised that the situation "will not go unpunished."
Adán Molina, a resident of San Pablo Xochimehuacán, told the Efe agency that he evicted his house after hearing a series of detonations.
"The very loud explosions were heard and the floor shook and everything, and many windows were heard shattering, so we hurried out of the place," he said.
Members of the Army guard the area where an explosion was recorded this Sunday, in the municipality of San Pablo Xochimehuacán, in the state of Puebla, Mexico.Hilda Ríos / EFE
In Mexico, theft, especially of oil, has proliferated.
The most serious event of this type in Mexico was in January 2019 in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, where 137 people died due to a fuel leak.
The explosion occurred when hundreds of residents took advantage of a leak in an oil pipeline to steal gasoline, just after the president had declared a frontal fight against this practice, known in Mexico as huachicoleo.
With information from The Associated Press, Efe and
Reforma
.
