A massive explosion gutted Mexico’s biggest fireworks market on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people and injuring 72, the authorities said.
The conflagration in the Mexico City suburb of Tultepec set off a quick-fire series of multicoloured blasts that sent a vast cloud of smoke billowing over the capital.
The market had been packed with customers buying pyrotechnics for traditional end-of-year festivities. Christmas and New Year parties in many Latin American countries often wrap up with clattering firework blasts.
“You just heard the blast. And everything started to be on fire. People came running out on fire,” eyewitness Walter Garduno said. “People were alight— children,” he added before trailing off.
Mexico worked Wednesday to identify the charred bodies of dozens of people. Thirty-one people are known to have died in the Tuesday blast — 26 at the scene and five more in hospital. Forensic experts are working on genetic analyses of the bodies because nearly all are impossible to identify.
Rescue workers were still searching for bodies — or survivors — in the smouldering wreckage of the market.
Christmas and New Year parties in many Latin American countries often wrap up with a fireworks free-for-all. Another 72 people were injured in the blast. Fifty-one remained in hospital on Tuesday night, many with severe burns covering their bodies. Another 21 people with lesser injuries were treated and released.
Three badly burned children were due to be transferred to a specialist hospital in Galveston, Texas. Residents were left traumatised by the cataclysmic scene.
From a few kilometres away, the multiple explosions almost looked festive, alight in blue, red and white. They were anything but.
The scorched remains of the San Pablito market looked like something from a post-apocalyptic film, with little left standing in the smouldering ruins. The explosion sent a vast cloud of smoke billowing over the capital. An acrid smell hung in the air well into the night.
Fire crews struggled for three hours before bringing the blaze under control. The head of the civil protection service, Luis Felipe Puente, said crews had to wait for all the fireworks to finish exploding before they could extinguish the flames.
“The entire market is gone,” he said. It had more than 300 stands. Several of the injured were in “delicate condition,” he added.
Small explosions continued to startle locals through the night. Authorities said they were controlled blasts to eliminate remaining gunpowder.
Homes and vehicles nearby were also severely damaged. In some areas, emergency workers were gently probing for survivors under heaps of charred and twisted roofing material.
People desperately searching for family and friends shouted and gestured to rescuers about where they hoped the missing might be found.
